Investigation into Substance and/or Maladministration

If you have received a Decision Body decision you may be able to appeal this through the internal Service Complaints process first. 

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

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

The Ombudsman may be able to help you. You can:

• 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 Admissibility Reviews, follow the link below: 

If you believe that the decision reached was wrong, or there was something wrong with the handling of your complaint, you can ask the Ombudsman to investigate this.

You have 6 weeks and 2 days to request an investigation into:

• Alleged Maladministration, and/or;
• The Substance of your Service Complaint.

Applications received are triaged in order to make a decision on whether they will be investigated. During the triage process we will review the key documents. The following criteria is used to determine whether an investigation will be conducted:

• Whether the application was made in time
• There is a reasonable prospect a new investigation would result in a different outcome
• An investigation would be a proportionate use of the Ombudsman’s powers
• The redress requested can be achieved
• There is a public interest in conducting an investigation
• There is potential a complainant suffered an injustice due to Maladministration

If your application is not accepted, you will receive a decision letter that explains why it was not accepted. 

If the application is accepted following the initial case review, we will conduct an investigation on either your entire complaint, or a part of it, before we reach a decision.

The investigators first task is to ask the Service that handled the complaint to provide a number of key documents from their complaint file. We ask for these because we want to see what was investigated and how the investigation was conducted.

The investigator may then contact the relevant parties involved, including respondents and witnesses (if necessary and proportionate) and seek further information or clarification.

At the end of an investigation, we will give you a clear and reasoned decision letter that sets out what we have done and why we have reached that decision. 

The Ombudsman's decisions are final, they cannot be appealed. Should you wish to pursue a matter further you may have recourse to seek Judicial Review through civil authorities. There is a time limit for bringing a Judicial Review, which is generally three months from the date of the decision. 

The Ombudsman and her team are unable to provide advice on this process but you may wish to obtain legal advice at your own cost should you decide to explore this option.