The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the alleged failure of the Council to consider a complaint about the service provided by the coroner. We do not consider it a good use of public money to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we cannot deal with the substantive issue.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council has failed to properly investigate his complaint about a lack of service and honesty from the coroner.
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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) It is not a good use of public money to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we cannot deal with the substantive issue.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
A coroner’s duties and roles under the 2009 Act remain the coroner’s despite being appointed and paid by the council and coroner’s officers being provided by the council and/or the police. When working on behalf of a coroner as part of the coroner’s statutory functions relating to coronial investigations, coroner’s officers are exercising the coroner’s functions, not those of the council. We cannot therefore consider complaints about those actions.
We can consider complaints about alleged fault in connection with the following: appointing senior coroners paying the salary or fees of coroners and reimbursing the expenses incurred by coroners because of coroners’ performance of their statutory functions providing whatever officers and staff are needed by coroners to carry out their (i.e. the relevant coroners’) functions, to the extent that these are not provided by a local policing body providing accommodation which is appropriate to the needs of coroners in carrying out their (i.e. the relevant coroners’) functions The Ministry of Justice guidance states we can consider a complaint about how the local authority dealt with a complaint. However, we may decide not to because of our usual approach of not considering a complaint about complaint handling where we cannot consider the core issues.
Mr X complained to the Council alleging a lack of service and transparency by the coroner. We can consider a complaint that the Council failed to properly investigate his complaint, but we cannot consider the issues at the core of that complaint – the alleged lack of service and transparency.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. We do not consider it a good use of public money to investigate a complaint about the complaint process alone as we cannot consider the concerns at the heart of Mr X’s complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman