Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council’s refusal to respond to his complaints about its delay in confirming whether it will start court action. A further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile because Mr X has been served with court summons.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council has not responded to his complaints about its delay in confirming whether it will start court action against him. He said he asked the Council to reply to his complaint by a certain deadline, but it did not.
2. He said not knowing when the Council will start court proceedings has caused him distress. Mr X would like the Council to respond to his complaint and clearly state when or if it will start court action.

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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 there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X said the Council has not responded to his complaints about its delay in confirming when or if it will start court action.
7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because a further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile. The Council confirmed it has started legal proceedings, and Mr X has been served with a court summons.
8. We will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling alone as this would not be a good use of our limited resources. However, we note the Council previously advised Mr X it would not respond to his complaints as this may prejudice potential court proceedings.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because a further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile. We will not look at the Council’s complaint handling alone as this would not be a good use of our limited resources.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman