Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a complaint about councillor conduct. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or of injustice to the complainant so it does not warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X has complained about the way the Council has handled her complaint about the conduct of 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 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Local Authorities have a duty to designate a Monitoring Officer to ensure the lawfulness and fairness of authority decision making. The Monitoring Officer must ensure that the authority, its officers and members maintain the highest standards of conduct. Each council has different rules for dealing with complaints about code of conduct breaches.
6. In this case, Ms X contacted the Council to complain that a local councillor had been handling complaints in relation to an issue in which he had a personal interest. Ms X felt the councillor would be unable to address the complaints impartially. Ms X also felt the councillor was rude towards members of the local community when challenged about this.
7. The Monitoring Officer decided not to take further action in relation to Ms X’s concerns as it said the issue reported did not fall within the scope of the councillor code of conduct. The council’s policy says the Monitoring Officer must make their decision in consultation with an Independent Person, which they did. This is a decision the Monitoring Officer was entitled to make, and we cannot challenge the decision if the council has followed its processes correctly.
8. Though I understand Ms X disagrees with the Council’s decision, there are no grounds for us to criticise it as flawed, and an investigation would be unlikely to find fault. We cannot directly investigate or comment on the actions of the councillor complained about.
9. Nor is there enough evidence the Council’s handling of the complaint about a councillor has caused Ms X significant injustice in itself.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or of it causing Ms X significant injustice, so it does not warrant us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman