Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about what a social wrote in a court report and how the Council submitted it. These matters are not separable from a court process, and we have no authority to consider them.

The complaint

1. Miss X said a social worker wrote a false report about her without telling her, and she only saw it less than two days before the court hearing.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. The courts have said that where someone has used their right of appeal, reference or review or remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

The legal limit within which the Ombudsman operates is clear. Regardless of what happened in court, or the outcome, the content of a report for a court and the way in which it is disclosed to either party are not matters we can investigate. They are not separable from the court process.

Back to top

Final decision

6. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint because the matters she complains of are not separable from a court process.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman