Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mr X’s complaint about the conduct of a councillor. This is because we are unlikely to find enough evidence of fault or sufficient injustice to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council failed to properly consider her complaint about the actions of a councillor.
2. She says this has caused her frustration, had wasted her time and left her with no faith in the Council’s integrity.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Councils have a duty to designate a Monitoring Officer to ensure the lawfulness and fairness of authority decision making. The Monitoring Officer must ensure the council, its officers and members maintain the highest standards of conduct. Each council has different rules for dealing with complaints about code of conduct breaches.
7. 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. Where a decision has been made in line with the correct procedure, taking account of the relevant evidence, the Ombudsman will generally not criticise the decision, even if the complainant does not agree with it.
8. I am satisfied the Monitoring Officer dealt with Mr X’s complaint in line with its arrangements for code of conduct complaints before deciding the complaint should not be investigated further.
9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Monitoring Officer carried out their investigation and reached their conclusions to justify our involvement.
10. Furthermore, even if the Council had acted with fault, we would not investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because the injustice she says she has been caused is not sufficient to warrant the costs of an investigation.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault or significant injustice to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman