London Borough of Waltham Forest (21 005 913)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Oct 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to complaint made against a councillor. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation. And we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking.
The complaint
- The complainant, I shall call Mr X, says the Council has refused to uphold his complaint that a councillor fails to declare interests when he attends the London Councils Transport and Environment Committee meetings.
- He wants the Councillor and the Council’s Chief executive sacked.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered:
- information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code and
- Mr X’s comments on the draft version of this decision
My assessment
- The Ombudsman does not offer a right of appeal against a council’s decision on complaints about the conduct of members. But we can consider if there was fault in the way a council considered a complaint.
- In this case, I have not seen any evidence of fault in how the Council considered Mr X’s complaint. The Monitoring Officer considered his complaint in consultation with the Statutory Independent Person. They decided there was no case to answer. The Monitoring Officer has explained this to Mr X. Without evidence of fault in the process the Council followed we have no powers to question the merits of the decision reached.
- Also, Mr X wants the Councillor dismissed. This is not something the Ombudsman can achieve for him.
Final decision
- I will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. And we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X is seeking.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman