Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council’s Monitoring Officer dealt with a complaint about the conduct of a councillor. This is because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council. The complainant has also not suffered any significant injustice because of any delays.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, has complained about how the Council’s Monitoring Officer dealt with her complaint about the actions of a local councillor during a meeting.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the council.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. 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.
5. In this case, the Monitoring Officer decided not to take any further action as the councillor complained about was not acting in their official capacity at the time of the incident. I understand Mrs X may disagree with the Monitoring Officer’s decision. But they were entitled to use their professional judgement in this regard. I am satisfied the Monitoring Officer properly considered Mrs X’s concerns before deciding further investigation was not necessary. It is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman could add to this response or find fault with how the Monitoring Officer reached their decision.
6. Mrs X has also complained about how long the Council took to respond to her complaint. However, I do not consider that the injustice suffered by Mrs X because of any delays would be significant enough to justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council. Mrs X has not suffered significant injustice because of any delays.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman