Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to investigate a recent complaint made by Mr X concerning matters from 2018. This is because the events concerned happened too long ago to be investigated now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s decision not to investigate a recent complaint he made concerning matters dating back to 2018 by telling him that the matters were over 12 months old and it was now too late to look at them. Mr X says the Council did not properly follow its complaints procedure.

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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. 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/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I spoke to Mr X and considered the information he provided.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X made a complaint to the Council concerning emails which were sent during the time of an earlier complaint he made to the Ombudsman in 2018. The Council told him that because the matters about which he complained were over 12 months old, it would not investigate.
7. Mr X says the Council has not properly followed its complaints procedure and wants us to investigate this. However, we will not generally investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not investigating the substantive issue and here the matters the subject of Mr X’s recent complaint to the Council happened too long ago for us to investigate them now.
8. Moreover, Mr X claims he has been defamed and libelled in communication from the Council from 2018 but such a claim would be for the courts and not the Ombudsman to determine.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the events concerned happened too long ago to be investigated now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman