Harborough District Council (25 023 927)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate the Council’s handling of a complaint considered under its procedures for complaints about elected members. There is not enough outstanding injustice and it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
- X complains about the Council’s handling of a complaint against them in their role as councillor.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In its complaint response, the Council accepted that some parts of its procedure for handling complaints about councillor code of conduct lacked clarity and could be improved. It said it had now revised its procedure to address the concerns X had raised and to ensure they would not happen again.
- The Council told X it would review the complaint raised against them under its new procedures. Following this review, it dismissed the complaint.
- We will not investigate this complaint. I acknowledge this matter has caused X some distress. However, the Council has now dismissed the complaint. There is insufficient outstanding injustice to warrant an investigation.
- In response to his concerns, the Council also revised its procedure for handling councillor code of conduct complaints. This is what we would expect. It is unlikely an investigation could add to this or that it would lead to a different outcome.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is not enough outstanding injustice to justify our involvement and an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman