Rejected petition Make Legal Aid available for complaints against Local Authorities are not upheld and when taken
Sometimes complaints against Local Authorities are not upheld and when taken to the Public Ombudsman they say you have a case but due to limited resources they are unable to investigate it. Personally this has happened to me a number of times including complaints of poor care for a vulnerable adult, mishandling of child protection procedures and housing related failures.
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In one instance i took the Local Authority to court and the judge was sympathetic to my case, but it needed to go to a higher court. However I didn't haver the funds to do this and this would the same for many citizens on low income. Had Legal Aid been available the Local Authority would have been more accountable to the valid complaint I had raised.
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the Senedd or Welsh Government is not responsible for.
The Government of Wales Act 2006 establishes the extent of the Senedd’s power to make new laws and amend existing law (also known as legislative competence). Schedules 7A and 7B of the 2006 Act set out the issues which are ‘restricted’ or ‘reserved’ - i.e. areas where the UK Parliament, not the Senedd, can legislate.
Paragraph 166 of Schedule 7A to GoWA reserves legal aid. As a result, it is not possible for the Senedd to take the action called for by your petition.
Further information about the powers and responsibilities of the Senedd can be found here: https://senedd.wales/how-we-work/our-role/powers/
You may wish to consider petitioning the UK Parliament about this issue instead: https://petition.parliament.uk/
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards
Rejected petitions are published in the language in which they were submitted