Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint that the Council was late in providing him with a copy of an assessment. This is because investigation could not establish that fault on the Council’s part caused the injustice Mr B claims.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council was late in providing him with a copy of an assessment, thereby putting him at a disadvantage in private law proceedings.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mr B has said in support of his complaint and the complaint correspondence provided by the Council. I have offered Mr B the opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

5. Mr B’s daughter was the subject of private law proceedings. Mr B complains that the Council failed to provide him with a copy of a Children and Families Assessment in time for him to use it in court. He says the judge was critical of the absence of the document. He contends that he was disadvantaged by the Council’s failure to provide the document, and that its absence led to an adverse decision.
6. Mr B says as a result of the court’s decision he was denied contact with his daughter for a month and had to incur solicitors’ fees for a further hearing. He wants the Council to reimburse those fees.
7. In response to Mr B’s complaint the Council has accepted that it delayed issuing the document. It has apologised and offered a small payment in recognition of the time and trouble Mr B was put to in pursuing the complaint. It has declined to pay Mr B’s legal costs.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint. The Council has accepted that it was at fault, so the question for the Ombudsman is whether this has had the effect of causing Mr B an injustice. Mr B contends that the fault had an impact on the outcome of the court case. But that is not something the Ombudsman can consider.
9. The law says the Ombudsman cannot consider what happens in court. It is for the court to decide whether it has sufficient evidence to reach a decision, and what weight to give to the evidence. By law, the Ombudsman cannot consider what happens in court or the outcome of a court case. We cannot therefore connect the fault on the Council’s part with the injustice Mr B claims. The financial loss and loss of contact with Mr B’s daughter resulted from the court’s decision, and the law prevents the Ombudsman from considering how that decision was reached.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because we would be unable to establish that fault on the Council’s part caused the injustice Mr B claims.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman