Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (26 003 443)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Sep 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a member conduct complaint as the substantive matter, the councillor conduct, is not within our remit.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council wrongly dismissed his complaint about a fellow councillor’s statements they had made concerning an aspect of the Council’s public spending, which Mr X said, misled residents. Mr X said this undermined his ability to properly scrutinise the use of public funds on behalf of residents.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
- 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X alleges a councillor misled residents about public spending. This matter is not something we could investigate, because it impacts all or most of the people in the Council’s area, as per paragraph three.
- Mr X says because the Council did not investigate his complaint, he was unable to properly represent residents. Again, this claimed injustice relates to the residents of the Council’s area, not a specific personal injustice, and so we cannot investigate.
- Mr X no doubt feels personally aggrieved by the Council’s handling of his complaint, but I do not consider this represents a level of injustice that would warrant our investigating, as per paragraph four. We have limited resources and must direct them to the most serious cases.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it essentially impacts all or most of the people in the Council’s area and so is not within our remit.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman