Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse to consider is new complaint. This is because law prevents us from investigating complaints about the start of court proceedings or what happened in court, and it is not proportionate to investigate the complaints handling issue on its own.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to refuse to consider his new complaint. He also says the Council incorrectly claimed his complaint was about GDPR issues. Mr X says this has left him with no internal route to have serious concerns investigated. He says this has caused him significant frustration and uncertainty.
2. Mr X wants the Council to investigate his complaint; explain why it was not initially responded to and take steps to prevent this happening again.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X previously complained to us about related matters in 2024 and 2026 under complaint references 23017475 and 26009437. The Council considered the new issues Mr X raised and decided they were not separable from matters already considered. It therefore declined to consider them further.
9. The Council previously told Mr X some of the matters he raised were being considered by the courts. Mr X says the court advised him to return those matters to the Council. However, we cannot now consider those issues. Where there has been court involvement, the matters remain outside our jurisdiction, even if the court has not made a decision.
10. The substantive issues Mr X raises are matters we have previously considered. It would not be a proportionate use of public resources to investigate the Council’s complaints handling where we are not investigating the substantive matters complained about. We will not therefore investigate the complaints-handling issue separately.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matters he complains of are not separable from matters that either were or could reasonably have been raised during court action. It is not proportionate to investigate the complaints handling separately

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman