The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council’s Monitoring Officer dealt with a complaint about the conduct of a councillor. This is because the complainant has not been caused any significant injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, has complained about how the Council’s Monitoring Officer dealt with his complaint that a councillor breached the Council’s code of conduct. Mr X says there were delays and his complaint was dealt with in an unprofessional manner.
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: any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr 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.
In this case, the Monitoring Officer decided not to take any further action as the issues complained about would not be a breach of the code of conduct. I understand Mr X may not agree, but this was a decision the Monitoring Officer was entitled to make.
Mr X has complained about how the Council dealt with his complaint. He says there were delays and he had to chase it for updates.
The Council’s rules for code of conduct complaints say the Monitoring Officer will decide if any further action is necessary within 20 working days of receiving a complaint. There was a delay before the Monitoring Officer responded to Mr X’s complaint. I understand Mr X would have been put to some time and trouble chasing the Council for its response. But it has already apologised, and I do not consider that any injustice suffered by Mr X because of the delay would be significant enough to justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has not been caused significant injustice because of the Council’s actions.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman