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. We are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s actions.
The complaint
The complainant, I shall call Mr X, complains the Council failed to uphold his complaint that a councillor breached the code of conduct by failing to respond to his enquiries in a reasonable time.
He also complains there is a failure in the Council’s constitution as it does not require councillors to respond to resident’s enquiries.
Mr X wants the Council to modify its constitution.
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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) 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 Mr X, including the Council’s response to his complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Local Authorities have a duty to appoint a Monitoring Officer who must ensure the authority, its officers, and members uphold 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 decision. We can only look at how the complaint was considered. We are also unable to investigate or comment on the actions of the councillor complained about.
In this case, the Monitoring Officer decided not to take further action as they did not consider the councillor had breached the member’s code of conduct. I understand Mr X may disagree, but this was a decision the Monitoring Officer was entitled to make. As the they dealt with Mr X’s concerns in line with the Council’s criteria for code of conduct complaints, it is unlikely I could find fault.
The content of the constitution is a matter for the Council, and not a matter for the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have seen no evidence of fault in the Council’s actions. Nor can we require the Council to alter its constitution.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman