Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint made against a councillor. This is because the Council has now notified Mr X’s of the outcome of his complaint and there are insufficient grounds which warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s failure to respond to the complaint he had made against a local councillor. He says despite chasing the Council he did not receive a response and this made him feel stressed and ignored.

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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 may decide not to continue with 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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X made a complaint against a local councillor at the end of 2021.
6. The Council’s Standards Assessment Panel considered the complaint at the beginning of 2022 and decided to take no further action in connection with the complaint, setting out its reason in its decision.
7. Mr X did not receive a copy of the decision and despite his efforts to chase this up, the Council did not respond to him until Mr X complained to us in June 2022. The Council has now sent him a copy of the decision and it acknowledged it had failed to send this to him and offered its sincere apologies for its oversight.
8. While there was fault by the Council in failing to send out to Mr X the decision of its Standards Panel, and in its failure to realise this despite Mr X’s contact and complaints, there are insufficient grounds to warrant a formal investigation by the Ombudsman.
9. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. While delayed, Mr X now has the Council’s decision on his standards complaint and the Council’s apology and there are no outstanding matters which warrant investigation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council has now notified Mr X’s of the outcome of his complaint and there are insufficient grounds which warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman