Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (24 005 020)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a failure by the Council’s computer system to migrate details of Mr X’s business when it changed systems. The Council notified Mr X and other service users of the change and asked them to check and to report any problems.
The complaint
- Mr X said a fault in the Council’s computer system led to information about the businesses he and his wife ran being unavailable to potential clients, leading to a significant drop in income.
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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Changes in any computer system can raise glitches, even after testing. These sometimes only become apparent when the migration is live and service users access the system. We would expect the Council to tell those potentially affected by a change in a recording system in advance of the change, and to advise them to check and report any problems in function caused by the migration of data.
- In this case, the system involved information about businesses, including the ones run by Mr X and his wife. It is not disputed many clients used the information on the Council’s system to choose a provider. The correspondence I have seen indicates the Council told those affected, including Mr X and his wife, of the forthcoming change, and advised them to check and report any problems. It was then for those whose services were listed to check at first and again periodically, reporting any issues for the Council to rectify.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman