Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about information the Council has recorded about him. It is too late for us to consider some of his complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify us investigating other more recent issues. The law prevents us from investigating other issues.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has recorded incorrect information about him. He believes the Council has used this information to unfairly remove his child from his care. Mr X also believes the Council has continued to use inaccurate information against him to prevent him caring for a child relative. He wants to move on from his past and for the Council to remove the inaccurate information from its records.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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 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))
6. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to remove one of his children from his care and be placed for adoption in 2007. We usually expect people to complain to us within 12 months of the events they are complaining about. Mr X has been aware of these issues for the last 18 years. Any concerns he continues to have about the Council’s handling that occurred more than 12 months prior to bringing his complaint about this to us are now late.
10. We can exercise discretion to consider late complaints if there is good reason to do so. I have not asked whether there is a good reason, because we could not investigate. This is because the decision to place Mr X’s child up for adoption will have ultimately been made by the court. The law prevents us from investigating anything that has been the subject of court proceedings, regardless of how long ago it happened.
11. Mr X complains information the Council has recorded about his past is incorrect. He says the Council has used this incorrect and negative information against him when it decided he and his current partner were unsuitable to care for a child relative.
12. The Council explained to Mr X that it had to include information about Mr X’s past in its viability assessment because this formed part of the child relative’s history. The Council also explained it has recorded Mr X’s disagreement with the information recorded in its case notes.
13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we would not achieve the outcome he is seeking, which is for information to be removed from the Council’s records. We will not ask a council to change or remove its records or reports retrospectively. The most we would normally seek to achieve is that a record of a complainant’s dissenting views is added to the file. The Council has already confirmed that it will add details of Mr X’s comments to its case records and we would not seek to achieve anything further.
14. If Mr X believes he has a right to rectification or deletion of records under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), he may wish to consider raising his concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is better placed than us to consider them.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because some issues are late and others fall outside our jurisdiction to investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman