Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr A’s complaint that the Council contracts with an unsuitable operator for its school transport service. The complaint is late and there are insufficient grounds for the Ombudsman to consider it now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr A, complains that the Council contracts with an unlicensed operator for its school transport service and that the provider uses unsuitable vehicles.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mr A has said in support of his complaint and the correspondence he has provided.

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What I found

5. Mr A says that for the past two years the Council’s school transport provider has used minibuses converted into ambulances to provide school transport. He regards these vehicles as unsuitable. He also alleges that the operator is unlicensed.
6. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr A’s complaint because it is late. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. Mr A says the situation has existed for two years and the correspondence shows he has been aware of it from at least July 2018. His complaint to the Ombudsman is therefore late.
7. We have the discretion to consider late complains where it is appropriate to do so. That is not the case here. There is no indication that Mr A is a user of the Council’s school transport service, so it is unlikely that any alleged deficiencies in the service have caused him a demonstrable injustice. That being the case, it is unlikely that we would have investigated the complaint even if it had not been late.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are insufficient grounds for the Ombudsman to consider it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman