Organisation guaranteed to at least double the injustice (plans to abolish)

The request was partially successful.

Dear Local Government Ombudsmen,

A complaint ( http://tinyurl.com/z54lxnc ) highlights the perversity of an organisation that is supposed to remedy injustice caused by local authorities only for the injustice to be magnified by the Ombudsman who, if you disagree with her invariably unsatisfactory decision, will invite litigation in the High Court.

The reply ( http://tinyurl.com/z6s7exa ) bizarrely ends with the following

" I understand you may continue to disagree. Our process allows for one review of a decision, and this is that review. We have now finished considering your complaint and the decision is final.

Your remaining means of challenging our decision is through judicial review in the High Court. Please take some advice before considering taking such action as the Ombudsman will – as a publicly funded body – to seek to recover our reasonable costs in defending unsuccessful applications.

The case remains closed and we shall not write about or discuss it further because we cannot justify the cost of continuing to communicate with people whose cases we have closed. "

Q. Are there any plans for this obviously harmful organisation which enables councils to be criminally active to be axed?

Yours faithfully,

fFaudwAtch UK

Foi Officer, The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

This is to acknowledge receipt of your email. If you are making a request for information, you should get an acknowledgement from us within the next 2-3 days with a reference number and a date by which we will respond to your request. Please note, however, that this address is only for use in relation to requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Act and subject access requests made under the Data Protection Act. If your email is in relation to a new complaint please follow this link to a complaint form<http://www.lgo.org.uk/forms/ShowForm.asp...> or call 0300 061 0614 to speak to one of our Advisers, as the FOI Officer cannot deal with your complaint.

NOTICE - This message contains information intended only for the use of the addressee named above. If you have received this message in error please advise us at once and do not make any use of the information.

Foi Officer, The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

2 Attachments

Dear fFaudwAtch UK

Please find a letter attached in response to your request below.

Yours faithfully

Hilary Pook
Information & Records Manager | DL: 0330 403 4734 |
Local Government Ombudsman's office |
www.lgo.org.uk |

show quoted sections

fFaudwAtch UK (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

From: fFaudwAtch
To: @ Coinweb.lgo.org.uk
Sent: March 28, 2016
Subject: Re: Confidential: Case ID - 15016673 (COMPLAINT)

Dear LGO

COMPLAINT

I note from various items of correspondence that the Ombudsman is mindful of using public resources sparingly which suggests to me that the vast majority of complaints have to be filtered out. I guess this is enabled by the fact that the LGO, being a statutory complaints process, can apply the law so that one or a number of exemptions can be applied to justify rejecting a complaint based upon it being outside the organisation's jurisdiction. The statutory nature of the process serves as protection for the organisation from those already aggrieved by their council who are further let-down by the LGO as it is able to threaten them with the prospects of having to enter the casino justice system (judicial review) if they disagree with its decision.

The law has been enacted to enable its application with such flexibility that the same complaint could either fall within the LGO's remit and be accepted for investigation or be considered outside its remit and be rejected. The law can therefore be applied so that complaints which are valid and cause the aggrieved person undue amount of injustice, can if the organisation has no desire to address it, call up the law to back up its decision. Anyone taking the only action open to them which is the High Court would not, in my mind stand a chance of success because the law covers all angles in favour of the LGO. A system which I assume is in place to provide a safety net for the oppression of local authorities must be questioned in respect to why its function relies on having the ability to magnify the injustice infinitely by inviting litigation in the High Court.

The organisation appears not to provide any deterrent to local authorities from causing injustice to its residents, presumably because they know that the probability is low with regard to complaints made against them being investigated and upheld. A change in policy, which involves a tougher approach might not only improve the attitude of local government but have the affect of lessening the strain on resources as the number of complaints escalated to the organisation would likely plummet.

Regarding my complaint specifically, I can hardly add more to what I have already submitted in my representations. They have in my mind been completely ignored and can not possibly see how the LGO, if this is typical of all cases, can claim to be acting in the interest of taxpayers who are affected by oppressive councils. The existence of the Ombudsman in my case has clearly made the gross injustice suffered at the hands of the council at least ten times as bad.

Yours sincerely

fFaudwAtch UK (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

As suggested; submitted to the Department for Communities and Local Government:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/o...

fFaudwAtch UK (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

The Department for Communities and Local Government has responded and it seems that the LGO will soon not exist in the same form.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/o...