The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of a coroner during the inquest into the death of the complainant’s mother. This is because coroners are not employees of the Council and therefore their actions are not administrative functions of the Council. Other elements of this complaint are made late
The complaint
The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains about the actions of a coroner during the inquest into the death of her mother. Ms X says that during the inquest, the coroner ignored concerns raised about a pathologist and cancelled her mother’s funeral in order to allow the same pathologist to carry out a post-mortem review.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide. we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) We cannot investigate a complaint where the body complained about is not responsible for the issue being raised. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(1), as amended) 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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about the actions of the coroner during the inquest into her mother’s death. This is because we have no jurisdiction to investigate Coroners or their decisions. Coroners are not employees of the Council, but rather judicial office holders.
Ms X did raise a separate complaint with the Council which included complaints about poor communication from the Coroner’s Office. The Council found that correspondence had not be responded too, and that some communication had added to Ms X’s distress. It responded to Ms X in October 2021, advising her she could escalate her complaint to the Ombudsman.
I will not investigate how the Coroner’s Office communicated with Ms X. This is because these events happened too long ago, and I see no good reason why Ms X could not have asked the Ombudsman to investigate this matter sooner. Even if Ms X had complained sooner, we still would not have investigated these matters. This is because the Council has accepted fault and apologised to Ms X. Therefore, it is unlikely we could add to the investigation carried out by the Council.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because coroners are not employees of the Council and because other elements happened too long ago.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman