Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council's investigation into anti-social behaviour and how it dealt with Mr X’s complaints about this as any alleged Council fault has not caused Mr X a level of personal injustice that would justify our further action. Mr X’s concerns about data protection breaches should be made to the Information Commissioner's Office.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council solicited for complaints to facilitate the eviction of one of its tenants. Mr X considers this to be morally wrong and says he has lost faith in Council officers as a result. Mr X also complains about data protection breaches by the Council connected to this matter and that the Council did not properly deal with his complaints as it failed to interview him before coming to its conclusions.

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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 any alleged fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. While I recognise Mr X’s concerns about how a third party was treated, I do not consider he is impacted personally, by any alleged Council fault, to a degree that would justify our further action. As we will not investigate the substantive matter, we will not investigate how the Council dealt with the complaint about this as this would not be a good use of our limited resources.
7. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the UK's independent regulator in respect of data protection matters and is best place to respond to Mr X’s complaint about alleged data protection breaches.
8. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused a level of personal injustice that would justify our further action and data protection complaints are best dealt with by the ICO.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman