London Borough of Barnet (25 013 044)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Feb 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about information the Council gave a court or his contact with a child, as the Court is deciding this. The Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to consider an information sharing complaint.
The complaint
- Mr X says the Council’s children services team has failed to keep him informed about his child, gave a Court inaccurate information about him and has prevented contact with his child.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X which included the Council’s reply.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Court ordered the Council to provide it with a report about Mr X’s family and circumstances. This is called a s7 report. Mr X says that report contained inaccurate information about him. He says it affected his Court case.
- Mr X says the Council’s position has affected his contact with his children. He also says it has not shared information about his children which he is entitled to and has prevented him for being a full parent.
Analysis
- We cannot investigate the information the Council gave a Court.
- As the Court decided or is deciding what contact Mr X should have with his child, we cannot investigate the Council’s involvement in his contact.
- The Council does not care for his child. Mr X has two ways to obtain information about his child. He can ask the Court to order disclosure of information about his child. Also it is reasonable to expect Mr X to request the Council disclose information he is entitled to under the Data Protection Acts. If the Council fails to disclose that information Mr X can ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to determine a complaint about this.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot investigate issues and information in Court proceedings. The ICO is better placed to consider any information complaint
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman