Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement with the contact and residency arrangements of Mr X’s children. These are matters that have been subject to court action and which only a court could decide.

The complaint

1. Mr X said the Council treated him unfairly and broke the law. He said the Council lied in court and outside court. He said the Council delayed his children’s return and let them down, taking family time that could never be recovered.

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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 cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
6. 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), as amended, section 34(B))
7. The courts have said that where someone has sought a remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we cannot investigate. This is the case even if the appeal did not or could not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916)

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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. It is clear from Mr X’s complaint to us, as well as the correspondence with the Council that he provided, that the central issue in this complaint is the contact and residency arrangements of his children. Those matters were subject to court action, and only a court could decide what they should be or have been. We are legally prevented from investigating these matters. Any ongoing dispute about these matters could only be resolved by a court.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matters he complains of have either formed part of court action, or could reasonably have been raised in court, or are matters where Mr X has a right to go to court it would be reasonable to use.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman