The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s response to a code of conduct complaint he made against a councillor. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council refuses to investigate his complaint that a Councillor breached the Council’s Code of Conduct.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council about a councillor’s involvement in the sale of a piece of land to a developer.
The Council’s Monitoring Officer responded to Mr X’s complaint. Their response said they had: consulted the Independent Person spoken to the councillor involved considered the information provided by Mr X.
The Monitoring Officer decided there had been no breach of the code of conduct and so the Council would not be taking any action.
The Ombudsman does not offer a right of appeal against a council’s decision on complaints about the conduct of members. But we can consider if there was fault in the way a council considered a complaint.
In this case, I have not seen any evidence of fault in how the Council considered Mr X’s complaint. It followed the process set out in its procedure for dealing with complaints about councillors. It has explained its decision to Mr X. I consider the Monitoring Officer’s response to Mr X to provide a reasoned explanation of the decision reached. Without evidence of fault in the process the Council followed we have no powers to question the merits of the decision reached.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council considered his complaint about the councillor.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman