South Kesteven District Council (22 016 769)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Apr 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a complaint against a councillor as there is insufficient personal injustice caused to Mr X to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council acted vindictively in the way it dealt with complaints against a Council member. Mr X considers this was to stop the Council member from raising issues which are in the public interest. Mr X also complains the Council will not make public certain documents relating to the investigation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- While I recognise Mr X’s concerns, I do not consider he is impacted by his complaint personally to a degree that would warrant our involvement or that this is a matter we would investigate in the public interest.
- The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority on upholding information rights and is best placed to deal with the concerns Mr X has in this regard.
- For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused serious injustice from it and the ICO is best placed to decide if the Council was wrong to refuse to release certain documents.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman