Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on a complaint about councillor conduct. This is because the complainant is not caused a level of personal injustice that would warrant our involvement, the substantive matter relates to a potential criminal offence and therefore not a matter for us, and we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant seeks.

The complaint

1. The complainant complains about the Council’s decision not to take action after someone complained to it that a councillor had failed to declare their business interests. The complainant says this has resulted in a loss of trust by members of the public in the Council’s complaint procedure for dealing with member conduct complaints. The complainant wants the councillors who voted that there had been no breach of the code of conduct in this case, to be barred from sitting on a standards committee in future. The complainant also feels the Council should change its policy so that its standards committee is made up of a majority of independent people rather than councillors.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
3. 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 the injustice is not sufficient to warrant our involvement, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The complainant did not make this complaint to the Council, it was made by another member of the public, and so is not caused any personal injustice specifically from how the Council administered it. The decision itself, as the complainant explains, impacts on all members of the public in the Council area, and so, as per paragraph two, we cannot investigate.
7. Failing to declare pecuniary interests is potentially a criminal offence and is best dealt with by the police and is not therefore a matter for us.
8. Finally, we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant seeks as we have no power to order the Council to implement the changes they would like to see.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint because the injustice claimed affects all or most of the people in the Council’s area and so the complaint is not within our remit.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman