The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of the complaint Mr X made against a local councillor. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of the complaint he made against a local councillor and its decision not to investigate it further.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ which we call ‘fault’. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. , or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council’s Monitoring Officer considered the complaint and referred it to the Assessment Sub Committee which decided an investigation was not appropriate. It decided that an investigation was not appropriate because the public interest in investigating the complaint would be outweighed by the cost and resources that would be likely to be involved.
We do not offer a right of appeal against a council’s decision on member conduct complaints. While we can consider whether there was fault in the way the council considered the complaint, we will only investigate complaints if there is sufficient injustice to warrant our involvement or we consider it in the public interest to do so.
While Mr X may be disappointed by the decision, it is one the Council can make, and we cannot review the merits of it. As there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council in how it made its decision and limited injustice caused to Mr X, we will not pursue the complaint further.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman