Admissibility Review

The Ombudsman has the power to review decisions to not accept a complaint or appeal for investigation (admissibility decisions). 

An admissibility decision is any decision made by the Service to: 

  • accept a Service Complaint for investigation, in whole or in part; or
  • proceed with an appeal

The Ombudsman has the power to review these decisions and make a final decision about whether the complaint should be accepted into the system, or proceeded with at appeal. 

When can I ask the Ombudsman to review an Admissibility Decision?

You have 4 weeks and 2 days from the date your decision was posted or emailed to ask the Ombudsman to review it.

If you made a complaint and it was not accepted for investigation, you can ask the Ombudsman to review this decision.

If your complaint was investigated but your request for an appeal was not accepted, you can ask the Ombudsman to review the decision not to accept the appeal.

If you don’t make your application to the Ombudsman within 4 weeks and 2 days, you need to provide reasons for this and your application might not be accepted.

My application to appeal my Service Complaint was rejected?

If your Service decides that the appeal cannot proceed because it was:

  • ruled out of time; or 
  • ruled inadmissible for not being brought on a valid ground; 

You can either:

  • ask the Ombudsman to review this admissibility decision. If the Ombudsman disagrees with the decision made, the complaint will go back to your Service to appoint an Appeal Body; or 
  • ask the Ombudsman for a Substance and/or Maladministration investigation, if you do not want the appeal admissibility decision reviewed. 

If you ask the Ombudsman to review the appeal admissibility decision and the Ombudsman upholds the Service's decision that the appeal cannot proceed, this means that the Service Complaint is finally determined. You then have the option to apply to the Ombudsman for a Substance and/or Maladministration investigation. You will have 6 weeks and 2 days from the date of our appeal admissibility decision to submit such an application to the Ombudsman.

To find out more information about Substance and/or Maladministration investigations, follow the link below: 

Find out more about Substance and Maladministration investigations and apply

When can't the Ombudsman review an Admissibility Decision?

If the incident you want to make a Service Complaint about happened before 1 January 2008 and your complaint was not submitted before 31 December 2015, the Ombudsman has no legal power to look at the matter.

This is because a Service person can only make a Service Complaint if the matter they are complaining about occurred when they were subject to Service law.  Service law commenced on 1 January 2008. Prior to this, Service personnel were subject to the laws of their individual Services (Army Act 1955, Navy Discipline Act 1957 and the Air Force Act 1955.)  For incidents that occurred before 1 January 2008, personnel had until the 31 December 2015 to make a complaint and it is not possible to make a Service Complaint now. It may be possible to raise your historical complaint in another way.

How we will deal with your application for an Admissibility Review?

When an application is received by our office, our Enquiries Team will check to ensure you have provided the information required before your application form is considered complete. 

Your application will be assigned to one of our investigators in the order of the date it was received by our office. The investigator will conduct an initial case review to determine whether we can accept the matter for investigation. Depending on what you have asked for in your application, we will review the documents you provided to assess whether you have met the following eligibility requirements:

•    The application was made within the time limit (unless there are just and equitable reasons).
•    The application is not deemed frivolous, vexatious, or malicious.
•    The complainant was subject to Service law at the time the ‘wrong’ occurred.

Submit an Application for a Review of an Admissibility Decision

If you would like to make an application for a review of an admissibility decision, please use the link below

Please note: It is important that we can contact you once you have submitted an application. If we can’t contact you we may be unable to process your application or there may be delays in reviewing the decision.

Apply for a Review

Timeframes for processing your application

2 days

Once we receive your application you will receive an acknowledgement within 2 working days.

10 days

The initial assessment of your application will take up to 10 working days.

17 days

Once your application has been allocated to an investigator, we aim to provide you with a final decision within 17 working days.

The published time frames start from the time a fully completed application form is received by our office. This means that all of the information requested on the form has been provided. This includes:

  • signed consent (you can type your name if you are sending the form from a personal email account in your own name)
  • any extra documents asked for on the application form
  • any other information requested by the Enquiries and Referrals Team

Time frames could be longer if we are dealing with a high volume of applications. Your acknowledgement email will outline any expected delays in allocating your application to an investigator.

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