Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her family’s case. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing legal proceedings on related matters.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint about its handling of her family’s case.

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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. We do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X complained to the Council about its handling of her family’s case in response to numerous malicious and false reports made by third parties about her family.
7. The Council told Mrs X it would not consider her complaint via its complaints procedure whilst there are ongoing legal proceedings for her husband on related matters. It explained it made this decision in line with the statutory guidance and that it considered there was a risk of the matters raised in the complaint being raised during the ongoing legal proceedings. As such, there was a risk of prejudicing the proceedings if it carried out a concurrent investigation. It told Mrs X she could resubmit her complaint for consideration once the proceedings have concluded, but that it cannot consider any matters which were, or could have been, raised and considered as part of any court proceedings.
8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing legal proceedings on related matters. As set out in the Council’s response, this decision has been made in line with the relevant statutory guidance. This gives councils discretion to decide not to consider complaints where to do so would risk prejudicing concurrent investigations including court proceedings and criminal proceedings. It is a decision the Council is entitled to make and it has clearly explained it to Mrs X.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman