Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about evidence sent by the Council to the Court of Protection as part of court proceedings. This is because the matters raised in the complaint were the subject of court action or related closely enough to mean we could not investigate them separately.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about several witness statements and other evidence submitted by the Council as part of Court of Protection deputyship proceedings for Ms X’s family member.
2. Ms X complains about the Council’s complaint handling, including its incorrect signposting to another ombudsman service at the end of its process. She also complains about the Council’s handling of her request for information related to the witness statements.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8))
6. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
7. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. Ms X’s complaint primarily centres on evidence sent by the Council to the Court of Protection. This evidence related to a discussion between Council Officers and Ms X at her family’s members sheltered accommodation in early 2025. She says the witness statements included false and libellous information about her. Ms X says the false information affected her ability to care and advocate for her family member.
11. We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is about or related closely to Court of Protection proceedings and the Court’s decision to remove Ms X’s lasting power of attorney. We have no power to investigate these matters. The evidence sent by the Council to the Court of Protection forms part of what happened during court proceedings, which the law says we cannot investigate. We cannot make any findings about the Council’s application to the Court of Protection for the deputyship, the conduct of its officer during court proceedings or how the Court considered any evidence. This would require the Ombudsman considering matters that have already been considered by the Court or could have been raised with the Court. Further, the Court of Protection was the appropriate forum to challenge any evidence. I understand Ms X did raise some of her concerns with the Court. For these reasons, we cannot investigate Ms X's complaint.
12. So far as Ms X complained to the Council about its handling of her request to share certain records and amend its record of the discussion from early 2025, we will not investigate this matter. The Information Commissioner is best placed to consider this complaint about data protection. It is reasonable to expect Ms X to raise any ongoing concerns with the Information Commissioner instead.
13. It is not a proportionate use of our resources to investigate the Council’s complaint handling alone when we are not considering the substantive matters. Any separable injustice to Ms X is not significant enough to justify our further involvement. We will not investigate this part of the complaint as a standalone issue.

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Final decision

14. We cannot investigate this complaint about evidence sent by the Council to the Court of Protection. This is because the matters raised in the complaint were the subject of court action or related closely enough to mean we could not investigate them separately.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman