R v Commissioner for Local Administration, ex parte H (A Minor)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 21 December 1999 |
| Date | 21 December 1999 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Mr Justice Turner
Commissioner for Local Administration - matter already determined by court - commissioner has no jurisdiction to investigate complaint
The Commissioner for Local Administration had no jurisdiction to investigate a complaint where the matter complained of had already been determined by the courts.
Mr Justice Turner so held in the Queen's Bench Division when dismissing an application for judicial review brought by H, a minor, by his mother and next friend, of the decision of Mr Commissioner White dated July 15, 1997 whereby he refused to investigate the applicant's complaint that Staffordshire County Council had failed to provide him with an appropriate education, seeking:
(i) an order of mandamus requiring the commissioner to investigate the applicant's complaint that the council had failed to provide him with an appropriate education between September 1994 and January 1997, and
(ii) declarations that where a complaint was made of maladministration in respect of which no remedy was available in judicial review proceedings, section 26(6)(c) of the Local Government Act 1974 provided no impediment to an investigation by the commissioner or, alternatively that the commissioner had a discretion to deal with complaints even where the subject matter of the complaint had been raised in previous judicial review proceedings.
Mr Richard Gordon, QC and Mr Ian Wise for H; Mr Brian Ash, QC and Mr John Hobson for the commissioner.
MR JUSTICE TURNER said that in previous judicial review proceedings in December 1996 Mr Justice Johnson had ordered that the applicant's special educational needs be assessed promptly by Staffordshire County Council and speedy consideration given to all appropriate options for his future education.
The present application, brought in August 1997, was, in essence an attempt to be compensated in respect of the maladministration which had led to the making of that December order.
The main thrust of the applicant's argument was that the commissioner had a discretion to deal with the complaint because, although the subject matter had been raised in other proceedings, the relief which could have been obtained in those proceedings had not included any remedy in respect of past maladministration and that therefore section 26(6) of the Local Government Act 1974 did not provide a bar to an...
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