Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the contents of a court ordered report because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been considered in court. We have no discretion to do so.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about the contents of the Council’s court ordered Section 7 report which was submitted to the court in recent proceedings. Mr X says the report contained incorrect and misleading information and was biased against him. Mr X says he decided to withdraw his application to the court due to the contents of the report despite the judge urging him not to.

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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. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X complains about the contents of a court ordered Section 7 report which was presented to the court in recent proceedings.
9. This is not a complaint we can consider. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been considered in court. We have no discretion to do so. This restriction also applies to reports which are presented to the court. Mr X also had the opportunity to raise his objections to the contents of the report to the court before he ended the proceedings.

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Final decision

10. We cannot investigate Mr X ’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion to consider it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman