The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council failed to properly investigate her complaint about a councillor. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
The complaint
Mrs X complains the Council failed to investigate her complaint about a councillor.
She says that as a result, she has been caused distress and she has lost faith in the Council.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X complained to the Council’s monitoring officer (the officer responsible for considering complaints about councillors) that a councillor had taken the side of someone who had acted in an alleged criminal manner towards her. She said the councillor was trying to influence other people to undermine her credibility and reputation.
The Council told Mrs X it would not investigate the councillor’s actions because the Councillor Code of Conduct had not been engaged. This was because the councillor had been acting in a personal capacity and in any case, councillors were entitled to align themselves with causes and take action to support those causes. The monitoring officer said they had consulted with the Independent Person when making their decision.
We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot question the outcome. In this case, the monitoring officer followed the appropriate procedures when they decided to reject Mrs X’s complaint. Because the decision was correctly made, we cannot criticise or comment on the outcome.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman