Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s excavation of a relative’s grave. This is because the Council has already provided an appropriate remedy to Mrs X and further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council wrongly excavated her relative's grave while preparing for another burial. She says grave diggers mistakenly identified and excavated the grave, and members of the public witnessed this. Mrs X complains the Council did not tell her about the error and she learned of it from a third party. She says this has caused significant emotional distress to her and her family.
2. Mrs X wants the Council to:

• pay financial compensation for the distress caused;
• restore the grave;
• continue supporting her family to complete cultural burial practices;
• apologise; and
• confirm it has changed its procedures to prevent this happening again.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council has acknowledged the error and apologised to Mrs X as part of its complaint response.
7. The Council explained to Mrs X it has improved its procedures for preparing graves and storing contact details to reduce the risk of similar errors and enable it to contact relatives more easily in future.
8. The Council has offered to repair the headstone and fund the improvements Mrs X has requested to the grave. It has also confirmed it will support Mrs X and her family to carry out the ritual of backfilling the grave.
9. The Council has already acknowledged the issues raised, apologised and offered an appropriate remedy to Mrs X. We are unlikely to be able to add anything to the investigation the Council has already carried out and any further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because a further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman