Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (23 003 304)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Jul 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Ms X’s complaint and failure to reply to a legal letter. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The substantive matters of Ms X's complaint to the Council are not separable from matters that have formed or could reasonably have formed part of court proceedings, and we cannot investigate them. A legal ruling thus prevents us from investigating how the Council dealt with a complaint about a substantive matter we have no legal authority to investigate.
The complaint
- Ms X said the Council failed to respond to a legal letter from 2021 at the end of its complaints process as it promised.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We have the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, raised within a court of law. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
- The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council, concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant, including evidence of the substantive matters complained of, and court papers.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because:
- The substantive matter complained of is not separable from matters that either have or could reasonably have formed part of court proceedings; and
- We cannot investigate how the Council dealt with or responded to a complaint about these matters because we have no legal authority to investigate the substantive matter behind the complaint about complaint handling.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman