Information Commissioner's Office

Commission for Local Administration in England

23 May 2007, Central government

The complainant made a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) about his County Council. He was unhappy with the LGO’s handling and made an internal service complaint against the LGO’s investigator. He also submitted three successive requests for information about the LGO’s complaints-handling statistics; the LGO’s investigator and his handling of the complainant’s case; and information from the internal service complaint. The LGO stated that it did not hold some of the information, provided other parts of it, and withheld the rest citing sections 36 and 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’) in respect of some, and section 44(1)(a) for the rest. The Commissioner decided that section 40 did apply and that it was therefore not necessary for him to consider the LGO’s application of section 36. In relation to the rest of the information, to which section 44 had been applied, the Commissioner decided that some of this had been improperly withheld under section 44 and should now be disclosed.

FOI 40: Not upheld