The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about restrictions that the Council has placed on his contact. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.
The complaint
Mr X complains that the Council has imposed restrictions on his contact since 2015 without the right of appeal.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I will not investigate the Council’s decision to place restrictions on Mr X’s contact in 2015. This element of his complaint is made late, and I see no good reason why he could not have complained sooner.
We did receive complaints from Mr X in 2023 about the restrictions. I will not investigate the Council’s actions during 2023 as we cannot accept repeat complaints about the same issues.
The Council recently considered an appeal from Mr X about the restrictions. It considered the reasons for the restrictions being implemented and the recent contact from Mr X. It concluded that due to the volume of contact and because Mr X has been abusive, the restrictions should remain. It wrote to Mr X to inform him of the outcome of the appeal. I will not investigate the Council’s recent actions regarding restrictions placed on Mr X’s contact because there is insufficient evidence of fault.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman