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Case ref:201100064
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Date:October 2011
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Body:North Lanarkshire Council
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Sector:Local Government
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Outcome:Some upheld, recommendations
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Subject:political matters; committees; standing orders; requests for information
Summary
Mr C complained that the council had wrongly withheld information from him and had refused to apologise to him, even though their customer services strategy was to do so when they were wrong and do their best to put things right. Mr C also complained that his complaint about the handling of his request for information was not dealt with properly under the council's complaints procedure. Mr C said that he wanted the council to apologise to him face-to-face and in writing.
We considered that there was an opportunity to try to resolve the complaint and asked the council if they would be prepared to apologise to Mr C. The council told us that while they acknowledged there had been a slight delay in publishing information, they did not feel there was cause for an apology. We could not become more involved because we do not have the power to comment on or to reconsider matters which have been the subject of investigation by the Scottish Information Commissioner. We, therefore, did not uphold this complaint.
On complaint handling, the council acknowledged, with regret, that they had not responded to Mr C's formal complaint within the target time for complaints handling. We upheld this complaint.
Recommendation
We recommended that the council:
• apologise in writing to Mr C for not meeting the council's customer care standards in investigating his complaint.