London Borough of Southwark (26 008 949)
Category : Other Categories > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint that the Council delayed reviewing restrictions it placed on X’s contact. This is because part of the complaint is made late and any recent delay in carrying out a review has not caused X a significant enough injustice.
The complaint
- X complains that the Council failed to carry out a review of its decision to place restrictions on X’s contact in 2022. He also says the Council missed a deadline in 2026 to complete a review.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council wrote to X in August 2022 to inform them that they were placing restrictions on his contact. The Council said that it would review the restrictions in a year. In June 2026, the Council carried out a review and removed the restrictions.
- I will not investigate X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to review the restrictions after a year. This is because this element of X’s complaint is made late and I see no good reason why they could not have complained sooner.
- I will not investigate X’s complain that the Council delayed completing its review in 2026. This is because I do not consider that a one-day delay has caused X a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because in part it is made late and because he has not suffered a significant injustice by any recent delay.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman