Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to investigate Ms X’s complaints that a councillor breached the code of conduct. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council refuses to investigate her complaints that a councillor breached the code of conduct.

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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 Ms X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because from the information I have seen, the Council dealt with this matter in line with its policy for dealing with complaints about councillor conduct.
6. The Council’s arrangements for dealing with complaints about councillors says:

“The Monitoring Officer will arrange for your complaint to be assessed. As part of the assessment, some preliminary enquiries may be made; for example, relevant parts of the Code of Conduct, any relevant public meeting records or relevant register of interest may be checked.”

7. It provides examples of questions they may consider when assessing a complaint. This includes:

“Is the complaint the same or substantially the same as a previous complaint which has been dealt with and no new evidence has been provided?”

8. The Council, in conjunction with its Independent Person (IP), considered Ms X’s complaint and the information she provided. It advised why it did not consider the complaint should be investigated. In its view, it had previously considered a complaint from Ms X about the same issues. It advised she had not provided any new information and the code of conduct process is not the appropriate route for raising her concerns.
9. I recognise Ms X disagrees with the Council’s decision, but it was entitled to make it. We could only question that decision if there was fault in the way it was made. I consider it is unlikely we will find such fault.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council decided not to consider her repeated complaints that a councillor breached the code of conduct.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman