Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a Code of Conduct complaint made by Ms X against a councillor. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Ms X, complains about the Council’s handling of her complaint made against a councillor.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We do not provide a right of appeal against a council’s decision on member conduct complaints. While we can consider if there was fault in the way the council considered the complaint, we will only investigate complaints if there is sufficient injustice to warrant our involvement or we consider it in the public interest to do so.
6. In this case, the Monitoring Officer considered Ms X’s complaint but decided to take no further action. We cannot review the merits of this decision and an investigation is unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman