Epping Forest District Council (18 019 906)

Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards

Decision : Not upheld

Decision date : 30 Jul 2019

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mr X complained a local Councillor accepted a gift from a local businessman without declaring its true cost and this makes the councillor unfit for their role. He wants them removed from certain committees. The Ombudsman has discontinued the investigation as there is no personal injustice to Mr X and we cannot achieve the outcome he wants

The complaint

  1. Mr X complained a local Councillor accepted a gift from a local businessman without declaring its true cost. He says this makes the Councillor unfit for their role and they should be removed from Council committees.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:
  • it is unlikely we would find fault, or
  • the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
  • it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
  • we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I have considered the information provided by Mr X and spoke to him on the telephone. I have considered the Council’s complaint response to Mr X and some further information I requested from the Council.
  2. I gave Mr X and the Council the opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

  1. Complaints that a councillor has acted in breach of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct are considered by the council’s monitoring officer. The monitoring officer may then refer the complaint to the council’s standards committees to consider.
  2. The Ombudsman’s role is limited to considering the monitoring officer’s handling of the complaint made by Mr X that the councillor breached the code of conduct. We cannot consider the actions of the Councillor.
  3. Mr X saw from the register of gifts that a councillor declared a gift from a local businessman. Mr X says this compromised the councillor’s role and the councillor should not be allowed to be part of certain Council committees. He complained to the monitoring officer.
  4. The monitoring officer considered the councillor had acted in accordance with the procedure in declaring the gift and so was not in breach of the code of conduct. They considered the Council’s guidance on gifts and hospitality needed to be clearer and said the Council was updating this.
  5. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint. The Council says the monitoring officer spoke to the councillor and took the view the councillor was acting in their personal capacity when they accepted the gift and in declaring it acted in line with the code of conduct. The councillor says they decided to declare the gift to be transparent and open. As the monitoring officer has now left the Council, I cannot question how they reached the decision not to investigate the matter further. It is for Council members to decide which councillors sit on which committees. I cannot require a councillor to be removed from a committee so cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.
  6. In addition, Mr X is not caused a significant personal injustice by the actions of the Councillor.

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Final decision

  1. I have discontinued my investigation as there is no injustice to Mr X and I cannot achieve the outcome he wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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