The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst his son’s case is being considered in ongoing court proceedings.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint about an officer being rude to him whilst his son’s case is being considered in ongoing court proceedings.
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) We do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (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 informed Mr X it will not consider his complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. It explained it made this decision in line with its complaints procedure and that Mr X can raise his concerns via his legal representative.
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst the case is subject to ongoing court proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings, which must take precedence over a complaint process, are not prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation.
It will be open to Mr X to resubmit his complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded to see if there are any residual matters it can consider via its complaints procedure.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate his complaint whilst there are ongoing proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman