The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how a Councillor handled his enquiries. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing Mr X a significant injustice.
The complaint
Mr X complains about a Councillor’s lack of response to his enquiries. He says this was contemptuous and disrespectful.
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, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X emailed a Councillor for help with ongoing matters. Although the Councillor responded initially he then failed to respond to a further three emails from Mr X. Mr X says this was contemptuous and disrespectful.
The Council’s Monitoring Officer considered Mr X’s complaint in line with its policy. The Council said it found the Councillor had acted in line with its Code of Conduct. The Councillor had raised the issue with the relevant department to resolve with Mr X.
The Monitoring Officer reminded the Councillor to be clear about their role in the future and said the Councillor would write to Mr X to explain and apologise.
I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault with how the Council considered his complaint. Also, while Mr X found the Councillor’s email disrespectful, the Ombudsman must use public money carefully and I do not consider this caused him a significant enough injustice to justify an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault causing him a significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman