Annual Local Government Ombudsman letter 2006/07
Released: 6 July 2007
In his annual letter to Chief Executive, Richard Carr, the Local Government Ombudsman Jerry White reports that he had received 60 complaints about the authority during the last financial year (2006/07).
This was a small increase on the previous year (2005/06) during which 56 complaints had been received and the figure includes complaints that were made prematurely to the Ombudsman and which were referred back to the authority for consideration.
The Ombudsman commented on the increased number of premature complaints which he had received (a total of 18, compared to 14 the previous year).
As a result, the council will be revising the wording of its Complaints and Compliments Literature and website information to clarify that, in most cases, the Ombudsman expects complainants to complain to the council in the first instance and allow it a chance to answer.
There were no findings of maladministration.
The Ombudsman reached decisions on 58 complaints. This number is not the same as the number of complaints received because some complaints are made in one year and decided in the next.
Of the 40 substantive complaints, 14 were about matters outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Fourteen were closed because the Ombudsman considered that there was no maladministration and a further five under the Ombudsman’s general discretion not to pursue a complaint, as he considered that the complainants had not suffered injustice from the faults alleged.
When the Ombudsman completes an investigation a report must be issued but there are a significant proportion of investigations that do not need to be completed because a ‘local settlement’ is reached during the course of the investigation and it is therefore discontinued.
As in the previous two years none of the complaints were pursued to full report, but seven complaints across a range of services areas were settled.
The average time the council took to respond to the Ombudsman’s first enquiries about complaints was 25.4 days in 2006/07 which was a slight decrease on last year’s figure and still well within the target time of 28 days.
The Annual Letter from the Local Government Ombudsman can be viewed in full on the city council’s website via the www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/complaints link.
Issued by the press office.