The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his information request. The Information Commissioner’s Office is best placed to consider this issue.
The complaint
Mr X complains that the Council’s Information Governance team failed to respond to his additional request after he received the reply to his Freedom of Information request in September 2025. He says he raised a complaint on 9 October 2025 and expected a response with the information within 15 working days, but he did not receive one. He now wants the Council to send the information immediately and pay compensation for the delay
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 another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council responded to Mr X’s Freedom of Information request. Mr X asked for additional information held by the Council about the total number of Penalty Charge Notices in the Council area over the last 18 months.
We cannot decide what information a council should release or how it should respond to freedom of information requests.
This complaint is about a data matter, and so Mr X can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the Council’s refusal to provide the information requested.
Final decision
We will not investigate the complaint because the ICO are better placed to deal with Mr X’s complaint about how his request for information was dealt with.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman