Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council dealt with a complaint about a failure of a town councillor to declare a pecuniary interest. We have not seen enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to warrant our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has refused to deal with his request for an investigation into whether a town councillor failed to make a non-pecuniary declaration.

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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.

(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 Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X complained to the council that a town councillor had failed to disclose a non-pecuniary interest.
6. The Council’s Monitoring Officer considered his complaint. They decided the complaint was that the town councillor had failed to declare a pecuniary interest. It told Mr X that it could not consider such complaints as they are a police matter. It advised Mr X to contact the local police which I understand he has now done.
7. We cannot investigate complaints about a failure to disclose a disclosable pecuniary interest, because this could be a criminal matter which would be for the police to investigate. However, councils should have protocols with their local police as to how to deal with such complaints.
8. The Council has confirmed it directs all complainants who are alleging non-disclosure of pecuniary interests to the local police. It says the police has a dedicated officer who deals with such complaints. And it has maintained this informal arrangement with the police since the implementation of the Localism Act 2011.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council has an arrangement with the police for dealing with reports of failures to declare pecuniary interests. We have not seen enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman