London Borough of Lewisham (23 011 194)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 24 Nov 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council investigated the actions of the complainant, who is a councillor. This is because there is because any fault has not caused the complainant any injustice.
The complaint
- Cllr X complains about how the Council dealt with a complaint about his conduct. Cllr X says there was procedural errors in the Council’s investigation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 continue 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.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- A complaint was made about Cllr X’s conduct. The Council’s Monitoring Officer investigated the complaint and compiled a report which was presented to the Standards Committee and which recommended that the Committee finds that Cllr X had not breached to Members’ Code of Conduct. The Committee subsequently accepted the findings in the report.
- I will not investigate Cllr X’s complaint. This is because the issues he complains about have not caused him an injustice, because the complaint against him was not upheld. Whilst I note that Cllr X says that the complaint has impacted his mental health and reputation, the Council has a duty to investigate complaints about councillors and the injustice Cllr X describes cannot be attributed to any procedural flaws in an investigation that did not uphold the complaint against him.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Cllr X’s complaint because the issues raised did not cause him an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman