Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of code of complaints made by, and against, the complainant, or its handling of the subsequent corporate complaint. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the handling of the code of conduct complaints, and we will not investigate the subsequent corporate complaint handling in isolation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s handling of code of complaints (CoC) made by, and against, him, and says the Monitoring Officer (MO) should not have responded to the concerns he raised, as this is who his complaint was against.

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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
• 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 bullet point, we can 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)
5. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as town councils. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)
6. And it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered:
• information provided by Mr X and the Council, which included the Council’s decisions on Mr X’s CoC complaints against a group of councillors.
• the Council’s ‘Arrangements for dealing with a complaint about the code of conduct for members’.
• the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. I appreciate Mr X might be unhappy about the Council’s decision on his CoC complaint against the councillors. But the Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decisions. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome.
9. The Council’s MO has explained to Mr X the reasons for the differences (e.g. timescales) in the initial processing of the CoC complaints made by, and against, him. The MO sought the views of the Independent Persons before reaching her decision on Mr X’s complaints against the councillors, and has explained the reasons for the decisions in detailed decision notices. I understand the CoC complaint against Mr X is currently ongoing.
10. Overall, I consider there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s initial handling of the CoC complaints, or in the way it reached its final decision on Mr X’s CoC against the councillors. So, we will not start an investigation.
11. I note Mr X is also unhappy the MO responded to his associated complaint about the handling of the CoC complaints. But, with reference to paragraph 6 above, it would not be a good use of our resources to look at this aspect of the Council’s complaint handling, when we are not investigating Mr X’s substantive, underlying concerns about the CoC complaints process.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the CoC complaints have been handled, and we will not pursue the Council’s associated complaint handling alone.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman