Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a complaint about the conduct of a councillor. We are unlikely to find fault in the way the Council considered the complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mr X, complains the Council failed to hold a councillor to account for breaching the Council’s code of conduct.

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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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. Local Authorities have a duty to have a Monitoring Officer to ensure the legality and fairness of authority decision making. The Monitoring Officer must ensure the Council, its officers, and elected members uphold 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 decision. We can only look at how the complaint was considered. We are also unable to investigate or comment on the actions of the councillor complained about.
7. In this case, the Monitoring Officer assessed the complaint. Following consultation with the Council’s Independent Person, they decided not to investigate the complaint as they found the councillor had not breached the code of conduct.
8. I understand Mr X disagrees. But this was a decision the Monitoring Officer was entitled to make. As the Monitoring Officer dealt with Mr X’s complaint according to the procedure for dealing with code of conduct complaints, it is unlikely I could find fault

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault in the way the Council deal with his complaint that a councillor had breached the code of conduct.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman