Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a complaint about the conduct of a councillor. This is because the complainant has not suffered significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X has complained about how the Council dealt with his complaint about the conduct of a councillor.

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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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(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 Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Local Authorities have a duty to designate a Monitoring Officer to ensure the lawfulness and fairness of authority decision making. The Monitoring Officer must ensure that 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. 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.
5. In this case, the Council’s Deputy Monitoring Officer considered Mr X’s concerns and the evidence available. However, the Deputy Monitoring Officer decided it would not be in the public interest to investigate the complaint further.
6. Mr X disagrees with the Deputy Monitoring Officer’s decision and says the jurisdiction test for code of conduct complaints is not set out on the Council’s website and the Independent Person was not consulted. Mr X also complains the Deputy Monitoring Officer failed to inform him of his options after it was decided the complaint should not be investigated.
7. The Ombudsman’s role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the council. I do not consider Mr X has suffered significant injustice because of any alleged fault with how the Council dealt with his complaint. While Mr X may be unhappy with comments made by the councillor, he did not attend the meeting and was not personally impacted by the matter. Mr X was also aware of his right to complain to the Ombudsman even if the Deputy Monitoring Officer did not inform him of this.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has not suffered significant personal injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman