Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about injuries he suffered in 2012 and the Council’s response to his requests for an investigation. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons for the Ombudsman to exercise his discretion and now investigate.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr B, complains he was assaulted at a martial arts club in 2012. He says he has suffered long term damage to his bicep and is taking anti-depressants. Mr B says the Council has failed to prosecute or take enforcement action against the instructor and he wants the Council to have a publicly accessible database where it will record incidents that have taken place at this club.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. 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:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered the information Mr B provided and I sent a draft decision to him to invite comments before I made my final decision.

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What I found

7. The incident Mr B complains about happened nearly eight years and is therefore late. While the Ombudsman can exercise his discretion and investigate late complaints where there are good reasons, I do not consider there are good reasons to investigate this complaint.
8. This is because Mr B describes the incident that took place as an assault. This is a criminal matter and one for the police to investigate rather than the Council or the Ombudsman.
9. If Mr B has suffered long term injury as a result of the incident, he would need to take legal advice about whether he could make a personal injury claim. This is also not a matter for the Council or the Ombudsman.
10. If Mr B considers the Council failed to fulfil its responsibilities in enforcing the Health and Safety at Work Act after the incident, there are no good reasons why he could not have raised this complaint within 12 months. The passage of time would now make it difficult to carry out an investigation. And the Ombudsman could not achieve the outcome Mr B wants of a publicly available database showing incidents reported against the club where the assault happened.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons for the Ombudsman to exercise his discretion and now investigate.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman