Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about matters relating to her children being placed for adoption in the late 1990s because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been subject to court proceedings.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains about matters relating to her children being placed for adoption 25 years ago following care proceedings. Mrs X says the Council refused to investigate her concerns about their welfare and deliberately misrepresented and distorted information and committed perjury in court. Mrs X says she has been fighting this matter for 25 years and the Council is disingenuous towards her and her husband.

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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 do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
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 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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mrs X complained to the Council about matters relating to her children being placed for adoption in the late 1990s and her concerns about their welfare.
9. The Council told Mrs X it would not consider her complaint because it was late as it was about events that happened over 12 months ago. It explained its complaint procedure excludes complaints about matters that are over 12 months old and the issues Mrs X raised were significantly outside of this timeframe. It also explained it would not consider the complaint as it was about matters that had been subject to court proceedings.
10. We cannot consider this complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.
11. The complaint also lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. However, even if the complaint had been made to us within 12 months the law would still prevent us from considering it due to the restriction set out in paragraph 10, above.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is about matters that have been subject to court proceedings and the law prevents us from investigating such matters.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman