Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his complaint about councillor conduct. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council’s Monitoring Officer did not properly assess the evidence before deciding to take no further action following his complaint about councillor conduct. He says the matter has caused distress and harmed his reputation. He wants an independent investigation into the actions of the councillors and disciplinary action to be taken against the Monitoring Officer.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)
3. 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
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

4. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council’s Monitoring Officer is responsible for considering complaints that an elected member has breached the Members’ Code of Conduct. Each council has different rules for dealing with complaints about code of conduct breaches.
8. The Ombudsman does not provide an appeal against the Monitoring Officer’s decisions. We are also unable to investigate or comment on the actions of the councillor(s) complained about. Where a decision has been made in line with the correct procedure, taking account of the relevant evidence, the Ombudsman will generally not criticise the decision, even if the complainant does not agree with it.
9. In this case, the Council completed an initial assessment of Mr X’s complaint. It considered information provided by Mr X and comments from the councillors. It decided there was insufficient evidence the councillors had breached the Code of Conduct and so would not pass the case for a formal investigation by the standards committee.
10. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has followed its procedure, appropriately considered Mr X’s complaint and so we cannot criticise the decision reached. I accept Mr X disagrees with the decision not to formally investigate, but there is insufficient evidence of fault in how the Council reached its decision to warrant an investigation.
11. In addition, we could not achieve the outcomes Mr X wants. We cannot investigate councillor’s actions, nor could we require the Council to carry out an independent investigation. We also cannot investigate personnel matters and so could not recommend disciplinary action.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault and we could not achieve what Mr X wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman