The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a complaint about the conduct of a councillor. This is because we are unlikely to find fault.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, has complained about how the Council dealt with her complaint that a councillor breached the Council’s code of conduct. Mrs X says the Council has just accepted the councillor’s version of events and did not give her the opportunity to respond.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Local Authorities have a duty to designate a Monitoring Officer to ensure the lawfulness and fairness of authority decision making. The Monitoring Officer must ensure that the authority, its officers and members maintain the highest standards of conduct. Each council has different rules for dealing with complaints about code of conduct breaches.
The Ombudsman does not provide an appeal against the Monitoring Officer’s decisions. We are also unable to investigate or comment on the actions of the councillor complained about. We can consider the Council’s administration of a code of conduct complaint. However, where a decision has been made in line with the correct procedure, taking account of the relevant evidence, the Ombudsman will generally not criticise the decision, even if the complainant does not agree with it.
In this case, the Monitoring Officer delegated oversight of the complaint to the Deputy Monitoring Officer.
I am satisfied the Deputy Monitoring Officer dealt with the matter in line with the Council’s rules for code of conduct complaints before deciding not to take further action. The Deputy Monitoring Officer considered Mrs X’s concerns and spoke to the councillor complained about. However, the Deputy Monitoring Officer decided the councillor was not acting in their official capacity at the time of some of the incidents complained about. The Deputy Monitoring Officer also decided there was no evidence to support claims the member revealed confidential information about Mrs X and said the councillor took acceptable steps in relation to messages received on social media.
I understand Mrs X may disagree with the Deputy Monitoring Officer’s findings, but they were entitled to use their professional judgement to decide the code of conduct had not been breached and further action was not necessary. As the Deputy Monitoring Officer dealt with Mrs X’s concerns in line with the Council’s criteria for code of conduct complaints, it is unlikely I could find fault.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman