Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s prevention of councillors raising concerns where there is already an open complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s action to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council has a policy to prevent the members from raising an issue if it already exists as a corporate complaint. She says the Council is not transparent about the existence of this policy and it is not published on their website.
2. Mrs X says this means the Council does not progress a complaint and members claim that they cannot do anything because a complaint exists.

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The Ombudsman’s role and power

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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, 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 Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council’s website says:

“Sometimes you [elected councillors] will receive an email from a resident, copied to you, that has been addressed to an MP, Corporate Complaints etc. In these circumstances please do not respond as the case will have been logged by the MP, Corporate Complaints etc. In those cases where a resident has addressed their email both to you and to the MP and Corporate Complaints, the Feedback Team will log the case against the most appropriate category. This means the Feedback Team will not process the same matter as casework and a complaint; it will be one or the other.”

7. The Council has also referred to a concern Mrs X raised with a councillor about a complaint she had made. It says the councillors contact was placed on her complaint file and information about the complaint was shared with the councillor.
8. It also confirms councillors can advocate for residents about their complaints. It says the policy means the Council will not deal with an issue raised as a councillor request if it has already been raised as a corporate complaint, and a council a councillor concern. This is to prevent double handling of the same issue.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because:
• the Council’s restriction preventing councillors from raising a council issue when a corporate complaint exists about the same issue is published on its website
• we have not seen enough evidence to show fault in the way the Council made its decision to prevent double handling of complaints; and
• we do not consider Mrs X has suffered a significant personal injustice to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman