Local Government Ombudsman

The complainant has requested the source of 2 statements made by the Local Government Ombudsman in a draft report produced in response to a complaint he had made about a local authority. The LGO responded initially stating that the information was subject to a statutory prohibition and applied section 44. In its review the LGO stated that it had destroyed the information but sought to provide some details of the source of the information which led to the statements through directly answering the complainant's questions. It could not however provide any copies of documents as that information was no longer held. The Commissioner’s decision is that the LGO was correct to apply section 44 to the information. As this is the case he has not needed to consider the subsequent destruction of the relevant information and whether that was correct or not. The Commissioner does not require the authority to take any steps.