Summary: We will not investigate how the Council handled a complaint about councillor conduct as there is insufficient injustice caused to the complainant to warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council delayed in deciding her complaint about the conduct of a councillor in respect of a financial matter and then failed to explain why it would not investigate. Ms X says she is dissatisfied, feels disrespected and has lost confidence in the standards regime.

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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 any fault has not caused significant injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. I recognise Ms X’s concerns, but we will not investigate as I do not consider she was caused a level of personal injustice from the councillor conduct itself or the Council’s handling of her complaint about it, to warrant our further involvement, in the public interest.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because she is not impacted personally to a degree that would warrant our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman