Lancashire County Council (21 014 494)
Category : Children's care services > Looked after children
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Feb 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s children’s services involvement with matters relating to the complaints contact arrangements with her child, including how the complainants requests for information are dealt with. This is because contact arrangements are subject to court proceedings and the Information Commissioner is best placed to deal with data protection matters.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will call Miss X, complains about how the Council has dealt with matters relating to the contact arrangements between her and her child. Miss X also complains that the Council intervened in a request for information she made to her child’s school.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I cannot investigate the Council’s involvement with contact arrangements between Miss X and her child. This is because this matter is subject to court proceedings.
- I will not investigate the Council’s involvement in a subject access request Miss X submitted to her child’s school. This is because the Information Commissioner is best placed to deal with these concerns.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the contact arrangements are subject to court proceedings and the Information Commissioner is best placed to investigate complaints about how subject access requests are dealt with.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman