Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s court action as the matter falls outside our jurisdiction. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that a council officer provided false information to third parties as the complaint is late and it is unlikely we would find fault.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the outcome of a court case against him by the Council. He says it amounts to a miscarriage of justice and says the Council lied.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. We cannot consider any complaint about the Council’s commencement of court action of what happened at court, as set out at Paragraph 4. Had Mr X felt the Council provided inaccurate information to the court he should have raised this at the hearing.
9. Mr X also considers someone at the council provided false information to third parties about the case against him but he has no evidence to support this assertion. The complaint is also late as it concerns a matter which took place more than 12 months ago. The Council denies the involvement of its officers and has pointed out to Mr X that the case against him was and is a matter of public record; it is therefore unlikely we could show a council officer was responsible for the issue he complains about.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. The substantive issue concerns court action taken by the Council against Mr X and any complaint about this falls outside our jurisdiction. It is unlikely we would find fault on a separate but related matter concerning the release of information to third parties.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman