26 October 2009

Mr G Cant

Via email ([FOI #18796 email])

Our ref: CS/09/101/HJP

(Please quote our reference when contacting us)

If telephoning contact Hilary Pook on 020 7217 4734

or if using email send to: [email address]

Dear Mr Cant

Request for information

In your email of 30 September you asked “what constitutes a cost of investigating a complaint and compensatory payments?”

You say that one of the reasons the Ombudsmen use for not investigating complaints of maladministration is costs. This is not the case.

The only measure of the cost of investigating a complaint is an average over a year. So we take our entire expenditure and divide it by the number of complaints we have considered, which produces an average cost per complaint. This would include all the costs you list. The costs covered are all those the Commission bears in running the service. The Annual Accounts provide full details of these costs, and can be found on the website at www.lgo.org.uk/publications/annual-report/.

We do not have a set `per hour' cost. I don't know what you mean by “what framework do you use to consider this, what safety s [sic] are built into it.” But, the Annual Accounts are audited by external auditors - see their note at the end of the Accounts document.

As far as “compensatory payments” are concerned, I assume you mean by this the payments the Ombudsmen recommend councils to pay when the Ombudsmen have found maladministration causing injustice. In such circumstances, the Ombudsmen seek a remedy that would, so far as possible, put the complainant back into the position he or she would have been in but for the fault. The Ombudsmen's decisions are not “judicial outcomes”, which would be binding, whereas the Ombudsmen only make recommendations. The Ombudsmen's recommendations are not always for a financial payment, but they will recommend a compensatory payment where:

/…

You will find more detail on this in the Ombudsmen's a guidance note - called `Remedies' - and it can be found on our website at: http://www.lgo.org.uk/publications/guidance-notes/.

This guidance note is currently being revised, and work is being done updating amounts suggested, where appropriate.

That concludes my response. If you feel I have not dealt properly with your request, you have the right to appeal and, should you wish to do so, I can supply a copy our internal complaints procedure. If you do request an internal review - can you please indicate why you are unhappy with my response. You also have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner to determine whether your request has been properly dealt with. You should note however that the

Commissioner will not consider any complaint where you have not first exhausted our internal complaints process or where there has been undue delay in contacting him. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner's role from the website on www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Pook

Hilary Pook (Ms)

Communications and Records Manager

LGO 01 (03/08)