Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a complaint about a councillor’s conduct. There is no evidence of fault by the Council, and we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about how the Council dealt with her complaint about the conduct of a councillor. She says the councillor should be required to respond to emails and telephone calls from their constituents.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(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 Mrs X.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Local Authorities have a duty to appoint a Monitoring Officer to ensure the lawfulness and fairness of authority decision making. The Monitoring Officer must ensure 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 or comment on the actions of the councillor complained about. Where a decision has been made in line with the correct procedure, taking account of the relevant evidence, the Ombudsman will generally not criticise the decision, even if the complainant does not agree with it.
7. In this case, I am satisfied the Monitoring Officer dealt with the matter in line with the Council’s rules for code of conduct complaints before deciding not to take further action. The Monitoring Officer considered Mrs X’s concerns and the evidence available and explained why they did not consider the code of conduct was engaged and that complaint will not be investigated.
8. I understand Mrs X disagrees with the Monitoring Officer’s decision. But the Monitoring Officer is entitled to use their professional judgement to decide whether the Council’s code of conduct is engaged when consider a complaint that a councillor has breached that code. The Monitoring Officer properly considered Mrs X’s concerns, explaining that councillors are not required or obliged to respond to emails and telephone calls from residents. As this is in line with the Council’s criteria for code of conduct complaints, it is unlikely I could find fault.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we have not seen evidence of fault in the way the Council considered her complaint about a councillor. Also, we cannot require the councillors respond to residents’ correspondence, therefore we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X is seeking.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman