The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of licensing standards at a kennel and cattery in Ms X’s area. This is because past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Ms X to warrant an investigation into more recent events.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council has failed to issue appropriate licensing standards under the Licensing of Activities Involving Animals regulations at a kennel and cattery in her area. She says she has been complaining about the premises since 2019 and the Council has failed to respond appropriately or in a timely manner.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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) We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ which we call ‘fault’. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant, including the Council’s response to the complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to past events. As we would reasonably have expected Ms X to have complained to us sooner, they fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and will not be investigated.
With regard to more recent issues raised by Ms X in February 2023, it is not our role to act as a point of appeal against decisions made by councils with which complainants disagree. The Council acknowledged some fault in initially identifying who had carried out an inspection and risk assessment and that it had not accurately recorded complaints made against the premises. However, we do not investigate every complaint we receive and here there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Ms X to warrant an investigation into more recent events.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman