Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about child protection. The matters complained of are closely linked to matters that were or could reasonably have been raised in court, as reflected by Mr X’s wish for the courts to be informed of corrections. Defamation is also a matter that can only be decided by a court, so it would be reasonable for Mr X to go to court about that. Matters relating to the accuracy of the Council’s records and to its response to a data subject access request by Mr X are ones the Information Commissioner’s Office would be better placed to consider as it has powers to require rectification and to impose penalties that we lack.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about various matters. His complaint is essentially that the Council recorded and acted upon false information and had presented this to a court. He said it had not taken account of the evidence he showed it about the falsity of its records and his claim that another family member impersonated him during a phone call to another organisation. He said the Council had defamed him by recording him as being responsible for domestic abuse and accusing him of having a relationship with another partner that did not exist. He said the Council was corrupt and extended family members had influence over the Council’s decisions.
2. He said the Council’s actions had caused him to lose time with his child, injury to feelings and significant stress.
3. He wanted the Council to correct the information passed to the family court, compensation, the police involved, and the Council to contact the area where his child is now living to safeguard the child and provide corrected information.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)
6. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
7. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))
8. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
9. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

10. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
11. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

12. We cannot investigate this complaint. The primary reason is that it is closely linked to matters that formed part of court proceedings, or could reasonably have done so. A permanent legal bar prevents us investigating matters if either party has made contact with a court. That clearly happened here. Defamation is also a matter only a court can decide, so it would be reasonable for Mr X to go to court to seek redress for alleged defamation by the Council. If follows that we could not recommend the Council approaches a court.
13. The complaint also includes elements relating to data. Even if these were not affected by the legal bar referred to above, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) would be better placed to consider them. That is because it has powers to order disclosure of data and to require rectification of incorrect data that we lack. It also has powers we lack to impose penalties.
14. Any other matters in the complaint are ancillary to the matters affected by these two impediments.

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Final decision

15. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matters complained are closely linked to matters that either formed part of court action or could reasonably have done so.
16. Even if matters concerning data were unaffected by that, they are matters another body would be better placed to consider.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman