Complaints about Councillors

You can make a complaint about a Councillor if you consider that the Councillor has acted in a way that breaches the Code of Conduct for Members. The code can be found under 'Related Information' on the right of this page

What is the Code of Conduct?

The Code is a national document set out by the Government, which Parliament has said all Members of a local authority must observe. It sets out the standards of moral and ethical conduct that are expected from a Member.

Councillors are the elected Members of the Borough Council. The Code will also apply to any appointed members of Council Committees.

All Councillors, when they are elected, sign to say that they will observe the Code as part of their declaration of acceptance of office.

The Code of Conduct says that Councillors MUST DO the following things:

• Follow the Code when they are representing the Council
• Declare any personal and prejudicial interests they have in the business of the authority
• Register their personal interests in the Council’s Register of Members Interests, and keep their entry up-to-date. The Register can also be found under 'Related Content' on the right of this page
• Treat others with respect
• Register gifts and hospitality received in their role as a Councillor, worth more than £25

The Code of Conduct says that Councillors MUST NOT DO the following things:

• Bring the Council or their office into disrepute;
• Use the Council’s resources for party political purposes;
• Compromise the impartiality of people who work for the Council;
• Discriminate against people on the grounds of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age;
• Bully, intimidate or attempt to intimidate others;
• Use their position improperly for personal gain or to advantage their family members, friends or close associates;
• Attend meetings or be involved in decision making where they have a prejudicial interest – except when speaking when the general public are also allowed to do so;
• Disclose confidential information, other than in exceptional circumstances;
• Prevent anyone from getting information they are entitled to.

The Code of Conduct applies to Councillors when they are:

• Carrying out Council business;
• Carrying out the business of an office to which they have been elected or appointed by the Council (eg Leader, Chair);
• Acting as a representative of the Council.

The Code does not apply to Councillors’ personal life, except in the following circumstances:

• their actions are bringing their office or the authority into disrepute – in these cases it only applies to unlawful activities outside the Councillors’ official duties which could damage the reputation of local government;
• they are using their position to gain an advantage for themselves or to advantage or disadvantage somebody else.

What are Interests?

Councillors will have a Personal Interest in any item of business:

• that affects their own well-being or finances, or the well-being or finances of their family or close associates;
• more than most other people who live in the area affected by the item of business.

A personal interest will become a Prejudicial Interest if it affects the Councillors, or their family or close associates in the following ways:

• it affects their finances, or
• it relates to a licensing, planning or other regulatory matter, and
• a reasonable member of the public with knowledge of the facts would believe the interest was likely to harm the Councillors’ ability to judge the public interest.

How do I Complain?

If you have evidence that a Councillor has acted in a way that breaches the Code of Conduct, you can complain to the Council’s Monitoring Officer, their contact details can be found under 'Contact this Service' on the right of this page.

Your complaint must be in writing. You can submit it in three ways:

• By letter, fax or using the online contact form, details can be found under ’Contact this Service’ on the right of this page.

In your complaint you must specify the following:

• Name of Councillor
• When the breach occurred
• Details of breach – ie the thing you are complaining about
• The redress you are seeking – ie what would you like the Councillor to do about it?

What will happen when I complain?

Firstly, the Council’s Monitoring Officer will acknowledge receipt of your complaint. He may also contact you to clarify any aspects of the complaint.

The Monitoring Officer will then submit your complaint to an Assessment Sub-Committee of the Council’s Standards Committee which will meet to consider your complaint within four weeks.
Every local authority is required by law to have a Standards Committee. In Reading, this is made up of seven Councillors and three independent Members (people who are not Councillors and who have been appointed to the Committee to be independent of the Council).

The Standards Committee will set up an assessment sub-committee to consider your complaint. This will be made up of three members of the Standards Committee, one of whom must be an independent Member, who will chair the sub-committee.

The sub-committee will meet in private. Neither you, nor the Councillor you are complaining about, will be able to attend it. Its business must remain confidential.

What will the Assessment Sub-Committee consider?

The sub-committee will have to answer two questions:

1) On the evidence available to it from the complaint, is it likely that a breach of the Code of Conduct may have occurred?

2) If so, is the likely breach sufficiently serious to warrant a formal investigation?

The complaint will have to link back to the Code of Conduct. The sub-committee will therefore check to establish that at the time of the complaint the Councillor was carrying out Council business in some way. The sub-committee will normally reject a complaint that you were making about Councillors which was about their behaviour in their private life, for example as a neighbour.

Where the Councillor was carrying out Council business, the sub-committee will also want to establish that the actions complained about involved a breach of the Code.

The sub-committee will normally reject:

• Complaints about actions that occurred more than 12 months before;
• Complaints about comments made in the cut and thrust of political debate;
• Minor complaints that it sees as malicious, politically motivated or made on a tit-for-tat basis – unless these suggest a more deep-seated problem;
• Complaints that are similar to a previously investigated complaint where there is nothing further to be gained from an investigation;
• Complaints about a Councillors’ private life which are unlikely to affect their fitness for office;
• Complaints where there is insufficient information to justify an investigation

In addition, the sub-committee will consider whether a formal investigation is the right level of response to the matter complained about.

What will happen when the sub-committee has met?

After the sub-committee has met to consider your complaint, the Monitoring Officer will then write to you to let you know the outcome. He will aim to do this within five working days of the sub-committee meeting.

If the sub-committee decides that your complaint should be investigated further, the Monitoring Officer will appoint an Investigating Officer to do this. This person is most likely to be an officer of the Council. The investigation will follow the Council’s local investigation procedure. A PDF of the procedure is attached at the bottom of this page.

• The Investigating Officer will ask to interview you about the complaint. S/he will also interview the Councillor about whom you are complaining. S/he will ask both of you to identify the witnesses you would like the Investigating Officer to interview, and the evidence that both of you consider that s/he should examine.
• Depending on the complexity of the matter complained about, the Monitoring Officer will ask the Investigating Officer to report back to him with the results of the investigation within two to three months.
• The Monitoring Officer will then submit the report to a meeting of the Standards Committee, which will decide whether the report demonstrates that there has been a breach of the Code of Conduct that should be considered at a formal hearing. If the Committee decides this is the case, then the Committee will set up a hearing sub-committee, to meet within three months.

If the sub-committee decides that your complaint should not be investigated further, the Monitoring Officer will write to you, again within five working days, to explain why the sub-committee came to this decision.

What can I do if I am unhappy with the sub-committee’s decision?

If you are dissatisfied with the decision, you may appeal against it. You must do this within two weeks of receiving the Monitoring Officer’s letter, in writing to the Monitoring Officer. The Monitoring Officer will then call a meeting of an appeals sub-committee of the Standards Committee. This will be made up of three different Members, including a different independent Member as chair. They will meet within a month to review your complaint and your grounds for appeal. The Monitoring Officer will write to you to let you know their decision. The appeals sub-committee’s decision will be final.

Chair, Standards Committee
July 2008

---