Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council’s Monitoring Officer dealt with a code of conduct complaint. This is because it is unlikely an investigation would add to the Council’s response or achieve anything further for the complainant.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X, has complained about how the Council’s Monitoring Officer dealt with her complaint about the conduct of parish councillors.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X 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. The Ombudsman does not provide an appeal against the Monitoring Officer’s decisions. We are also unable to investigate parish councils, or the actions of the councillors complained about.
7. In this case, the Monitoring Officer decided not to investigate Ms X’s complaint. The Monitoring Officer said allegations similar to those raised by Ms X had already been considered as part of an independent investigation into the functions of the parish council. The Monitoring Officer said it would not be appropriate to consider a complaint about matters already investigated and reported on.
8. Ms X disagrees and says the specific concerns she raised have not been addressed. But the Council has already investigated the principle of the issues complained about and taken action. It is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman could add to this or achieve anything further for Ms X.
9. Ms X says the Council took too long to respond to her complaint. The Council’s procedure for dealing with code of conduct complaints says complaints will be acknowledged within five working days and a response sent within 30 working days. There was a slight delay by the Council in this regard, but it has already apologised for the delay which I consider a suitable remedy in the circumstances.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman would add to the Council’s response or achieve anything further for Ms X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman