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. Ms X has complained about how the Council dealt with her 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:

• 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms 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.
5. 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.
6. In this case, the Monitoring Officer looked into Ms X’s concerns and explained why they did not consider the complaint should be investigated further.
7. I understand Ms X may disagree with the Monitoring Officer’s decision and says there was a delay before she received the Monitoring Officer’s response. But even if I were to find fault with how the Council dealt with Ms X’s complaint, I do not consider she has suffered any significant injustice as a result.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because she has not suffered significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman