Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the District Council’s handling of code of conduct complaints the complainant made about four town councillors. There is insufficient evidence that any fault has affected the outcome on the code of conduct complaints, and an investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve any worthwhile outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the District Council’s handling of code of conduct complaints he made about four town councillors, including himself.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We can 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. So, we do not start 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, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

4. With regard to the first three bullet points above, it is important to note the Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a Council decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decision, and we consider if any fault we may find is likely to have affected the outcome. In other words, we will only pursue a complaint if there is clear evidence of fault in the way a decision was made which, but for that fault, is likely to have led to a different decision or a more positive outcome for the complainant.
5. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)
6. We also cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as town councils. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered:
• the information provided by Mr X.
• information provided by the Council about the process it followed when considering the code of conduct complaint submitted by Mr X on 21 February 2025.
• information on the Council’s website about how it considers code of conduct complaints.
• the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. I appreciate Mr X is unhappy with the District Council’s decisions on his code of conduct complaints. But, as noted in paragraph 4 above, if there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome.
9. With regard to the complaints Mr X submitted against three councillors in March 2025, the Deputy Monitoring Officer (DMO) followed the Council’s process for assessing code of conduct complaints. The DMO consulted with the Independent Person (IP), and gave Mr X the reasons for deciding to take no further action. As such, there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way these code of conduct complaints were handled, so we will not start an investigation.
10. And whilst I understand the IP was not consulted on the code of complaint submitted in late-February 2025 about one councillor, I have seen no evidence to suggest this has affected the decision on that complaint. In particular, the Council has explained Mr X made the code of complaint because he perceived a lack of action by the councillor in response to a complaint Mr X had made to the town council. In making enquiries on the code of conduct complaint, the Monitoring Officer (MO) ascertained the councillor had progressed/forwarded the matter to the relevant town council committee, and Mr X had received a reply. The MO therefore did not consider it a good use of taxpayer funded time to conduct a consultation with an Independent Person before deciding not to take any further action.
11. We therefore will not start an investigation into this part of the complaint, because there is insufficient evidence to suggest, in my view, that fault has affected the outcome of that code of conduct complaint.
12. I also do not see that Mr X is caused a significant personal injustice by the MO’s decision that it would not be in the public interest to investigate the code of conduct complaint Mr X had made against himself. So, we will not investigate this part of the complaint either.
13. Finally, given that we have no power to investigate the actions of town councils or personnel issues, an investigation by the Ombudsman into the District Council’s handling of code of conduct complaints which are linked to such matters, is unlikely to achieve any worthwhile outcome. So, we would not start an investigation for this reason too.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence that any fault in the handling of the code of conduct complaints has affected the outcome, and we are unlikely to achieve a worthwhile outcome in any case.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman