The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about information the Council presented to a court. The law prevents us from investigating what happens during court proceedings.
The complaint
Ms X complains about information that the Council recorded and presented during court proceedings. Ms X wants the information to be corrected and for her families social worker to be changed.
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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) 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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about information the Council presented to the courts. A court report forms part of court proceedings. We have no power to investigate any matters related to its contents or preparation.
We have no power to recommend that the social worker assigned to Ms X’s family is changed. We therefore cannot achieve this outcome.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is about what happened in court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman