The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on a code of conduct complaint against town councillors. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Borough Council causing the complainant a significant personal injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, is dissatisfied with the Borough Council’s response to her code of conduct complaint about the actions/behaviour of town councillors at a parish meeting. She says the response was dismissive, unhelpful and undermines her ability to engage with the work of the Town Council.
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 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.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) When considering complaints about code of conduct decisions, we consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. This included their complaint correspondence, and information about the Council’s code of conduct complaints process.
I also considered our Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X complained to the Borough Council about the conduct of town councillors at a parish meeting, particularly in relation to revelations about the decisions of the Town Council.
In accordance with the Council’s ‘Arrangements for dealing with standards allegations', the Monitoring Officer discussed the complaint with the Independent Person. The Monitoring Officer wrote to Ms X with the Council’s conclusion that her principal concerns appeared to be around Town Council decisions. It said these were matters for the Town Council as a whole, and not for the individual members being complained about, so it could not take any action in respect of Ms X’s complaint about these issues. It would, however, remind one of the councillors about what language is appropriate to use during meetings.
I appreciate Ms X disagrees with the Borough Council’s response to her complaint, but the Ombudsman does not provide a right of appeal against that decision. Rather, we consider whether there is evidence of procedural fault in the way the decision was made. As the Council has followed its code of conduct complaint procedure, I find there is not enough evidence of fault to justify the Ombudsman pursuing the matter further.
In addition, whilst I appreciate Ms X is disappointed with the Council’s decision on her code of conduct complaint, I am not persuaded that any resultant personal injustice is so significant as to justify our continued involvement in the case.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence that fault by the Borough Council has caused her a significant personal injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman