The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about a councillor standards complaint because the body complained about is not responsible for the issue being raised.
The complaint
Mr Y complained a local parish councillor failed to declare an interest when the parish council consulted on a review of the Local Plan.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate a complaint where the body complained about is not responsible for the issue being raised. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(1), as amended) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the Council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the council of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information Mr Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Although Mr Y has complained about the Council, his complaint is about a local parish councillor, who he says failed to declare an interest when contributing to a review of the Local Plan. As the actions Mr Y has complained about were not carried out by the Council, but by a member of the parish council, we do not have the legal power to investigate this complaint.
In this complaint, the Council has investigated the actions of the parish councillor through its standard process. If Mr Y wished to complain about this part of the process, rather than the actions of the parish councillor, this would require him to complain to the Council in the first instance relating to its standards investigation. As Mr Y has been able to correspond with us, I would consider it reasonable for him to be expected to make a complaint to the Council before we considered any potential complaint he may or may not wish to make at a later date to us. However, until he has done so, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because the body complained about is not responsible for the issue being raised.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman