Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate the way the Council considered Mr X’s complain that a Councillor had breached the code of conduct. The alleged fault has not caused the him a significant personal injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to properly investigate his complaint that a Councillor breached the code of conduct.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:
• the alleged fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered:
• the information provided by Mr X
• Mr X’s complaint to the Council
• the Council’s response; and
• the Councils arrangements for dealing with complaints about councillors

Mr X commented on the draft version of this decision.

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What I found

4. Mr X complained to the Council that a Councillor had brought the Council into disrepute by his actions following a Remembrance Sunday service.
5. The Monitoring Officer considered the complaint. They asked the Councillor for his response to Mr X’s allegation.
6. They decided not to take any further action because each party had a subjective recollection of the event. There was no suggestion the Councillor had used offensive language or was shouting. The officer considered the Councillor not engaging in a protracted discussion on differing views did not amount to a breach of the code of conduct.
7. I understand Mr X is unhappy because the Council chose not to ask witnesses to the incident for their version of the event.
8. But in his complaint to the Ombudsman, he says he had not suffered any personal injustice because the Council’s actions.
9. The Ombudsman’s role is to consider complaints of maladministration and service failure causing injustice. We will not investigate matters where the personal injustice caused by the fault is not significant or where it has been largely remedied. We are not an inspectorate or a regulatory body.

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Final decision

10. I will not investigate this complaint. Mr X had confirmed he has not suffered any personal injustice because of the Council’s alleged fault.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman