Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council handled her personal information. There is another body better placed to consider her complaint and investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained a social worker at the Council wrongly carried out a background check on her and made a note of this on her records. She said this caused her stress and damage to her reputation. She wanted the Council to remove the check from her records and tell any organisations to delete information it had sent them as part of the background check. She also wanted the Council to pay her compensation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X made a subject access request to the Council. As a result of this, she found out a social worker at the Council had completed a background check on her without her knowledge.
6. Ms X complained to the Council. It accepted the social worker should not have carried out the background check.
7. The Council apologised to Ms X and told her it had removed the check from her records. It told Ms X she could complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if she was still unhappy.
8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. The ICO is the UK’s independent regulator for complaints about information rights and data protection. If Ms X considers the Council has breached data protection rules, the ICO is better placed to consider a complaint about this.
9. The Council told Ms X it has removed the background check from her records and said it has changed its process to prevent this happening again in future. It has also apologised to Ms X, which is sufficient to remedy any distress caused. Further investigation by us would be unlikely to achieve anything more.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is another body better placed to consider her complaint and investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman