Lincolnshire County Council (23 009 731)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 15 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about evidence the Council provided in court proceedings because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been considered and decided in court.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains the Council used false evidence in court proceedings which led to her children being removed from her care.
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)
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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 and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X complains the Council provided false evidence to the court and this led to her children being unlawfully removed from her care.
- The Council said it has not received a complaint from Miss X about this. However, it said it is not a matter it would consider via its complaints procedure because it is about matters that have been considered in court proceedings and any dissatisfaction with the information submitted to the court should have been raised during the proceedings.
- We cannot investigate this complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion to consider it.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman