Northumberland County Council (25 007 783)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Oct 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council signposting her to the Parish Council or Ombudsman to investigate her complaint about the Parish Council. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing Mrs X significant injustice.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains about how the Council responded to her enquiries about a complaint against a Parish Council. She says it is inappropriate for the Parish Council to investigate her complaint.
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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
- We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as Parish Councils.
(Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X has made a previous complaint about how a Code of Conduct complaint was dealt with by the Council and we will not consider this matter again.
- Mrs X made a complaint to the Parish Council and is dissatisfied with how it is being considered. We have no jurisdiction to investigate the actions of a Parish Council.
- Mrs X asked the Council to advise about the complaint to the Parish Council. The Council told Mrs X it did not consider Parish Council complaints and signposted her to the Parish Council and the Ombudsman.
- I will not investigate this complaint as any injustice resulting from how the Council communicated with Mrs X is not significant enough to justify an investigation.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault causing Mrs X significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman