Lancashire County Council (25 021 437)
Category : Children's care services > Adoption
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint that the Council has refused to provide information regarding the complainant’s child’s adoption, and has declined to consider his subsequent complaint. The complaint is not separable from matters which have been subject to court action, and the law prevents us from investigating what happens as part of court proceedings.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council refused to tell him whether his child has been adopted. He says the Council did not give him an opportunity to oppose any adoption application. He is unhappy the Council refused to accept his complaint.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says his child has been the subject of adoption proceedings. He complains that the Council has failed to give him information about the proceedings and his child’s current status. He says this prevented him from opposing the adoption and that he does not know whether the process is complete.
- Whether or not Mr X’s child has been adopted was a matter for the court. We cannot therefore consider it. This restriction also applies to the evidence before the court, so we can take no view on whether Mr X was disadvantaged in the proceedings due to fault on the Council’s part. The law does not allow us to investigate Mr X’s complaint.
- If Mr X believes the Council is withholding information which he is entitled to see, he may bring his concerns to the attention of the Office of the Information Commissioner. There is no role for the Ombudsman.
- Mr X also complained about the Council’s handling of his complaint. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue. That is the case here.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it related to matters which have been considered in court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman