Summary: We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council committing a data breach during adoption proceedings because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council committed a significant data breach in providing other parties with an unredacted report during adoption proceedings which included her personal information.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X complained to the Council about the matter set out in paragraph one, above.
8. The Council agreed the breach had occurred and apologised to Ms X. It said the recipients confirmed they had deleted the report. It also reported the matter to the appropriate regulatory body.
9. The Council said the possible impact of the breach was being considered by the court during the ongoing adoption proceedings. It explained that as it was being considered in the court proceedings it would not consider it further via the complaints procedure.
10. We cannot investigate this complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about such matters. We have no discretion to do so.
11. Whilst we have no discretion to consider this complaint, it is unlikely we would have investigated it even if the matter were not caught by the legal restriction set out above. This is because complaints about data matters, such as this, are best considered and decided by the Information Commissioner’s Office. It is the body set up to consider complaints about data matters.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion to consider it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman