Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a member conduct complaint as there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant seeks. In addition, any injustice to the complainant from this member conduct matter is not sufficient to justify our further involvement and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly dismissed his complaint about comments a Council member made in an email they sent to him. Mr X says this has caused him mental stress and anxiety and he would like the Council member to be disciplined and to personally apologise to him.

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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))
3. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s procedure for dealing with code of conduct complaints against Council members.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council assessed Mr X’s complaint and decided it did not evidence a breach of its code of conduct for Council members. The complaint was not therefore progressed.
7. I appreciate that Mr X is unhappy with this outcome and feels it amounts to a ‘cover up’. However, I have considered the Council’s assessment of the complaint and its procedure for dealing with such matters. Its procedure allows for such decisions, and I cannot see an indication of fault by the Council in its coming to its decision. In the absence of fault, we cannot question the merits of the decision.
8. Notwithstanding this, the member’s comments were made to Mr X in a private email and while I recognise Mr X says they caused him distress, I do not consider this represents a level of injustice serious enough to justify our further involvement. We have limited resources and must direct them to the most serious cases, in the public interest. As the injustice from the substantive issue is not significant, it follows that any injustice from the Council’s complaint handling is also not sufficient to warrant our investigating.
9. Finally, we look at organisational fault. We cannot recommend an individual at the Council provides a personal remedy or become involved in internal discipline matters at the Council.
10. For these reasons, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing a significant injustice to him and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman