Apply for an Investigation into Substance and/or Maladministration

It means what your complaint was actually about.

If you believe the final decision on your Service complaint was incorrect, you can ask the Ombudsman to investigate your complaint

It means that something was wrong or improper in the way your complaint was handled.

If you believe this has happened, you can ask the Ombudsman to investigate the way your complaint was handled.

Any investigation will not look at whether your complaint should have been upheld or not.

You have 6 weeks and 2 days from the date your final decision was posted or emailed to submit your application to the Ombudsman.

Please note: The Ombudsman is not a third level of appeal. This means that not all applications will be accepted.

The Ombudsman can only help you at this stage if you had no right of appeal after the Decision Body decision. If you had the option to appeal and chose not to, the Ombudsman cannot assist you. This is because the Ombudsman can only investigate if the complaint was finally determined in the internal process.

If your Service decides that the appeal cannot proceed because the complaint is ruled out of time or it is not just & equitable for it to proceed, you can apply to 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.

However if the Ombudsman upholds the Service’s decision that the appeal can’t proceed this means that the Service Complaint is considered finally determined.  This means that you can only make a make a further application to Ombudsman for a substance and/or maladministration investigation. You will have 6 weeks and 2 days from the date of our appeal admissibility decision letter to submit your application to the Ombudsman.

Applications received will be assessed against the following criteria 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

If your application is not accepted, you will receive a decision letter that explains why it was not accepted. For more information on the Ombudsman’s powers read What the Ombudsman can and can’t do