Complaints and Investigations

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What is a monitoring officer?

The monitoring officer is a senior officer of the authority of the member concerned or, in the case of parish councils, the relevant principal authority. They are often, but not always, based in the authority's legal and democratic services department. The monitoring officer has a statutory duty to investigate allegations referred to them by the Standards Board for England and plays an important role in promoting high standards of member conduct.

How do we decide what will be investigated locally?

When considering whether to refer an allegation to the monitoring officer for investigation at the local level, the ethical standards officer will use their discretion and take into account all relevant circumstances. These may include:

• the apparent degree of seriousness of the allegation
• whether the allegation is of an entirely local nature and does not raise matters of principle
• whether an initial investigation by an ethical standards officer highlighted issues that are more to do with the effective governance of the authority than an individual's misconduct
• any evidence that a local investigation would be perceived as unfair or biased
• any relevant local political issues that may have a bearing on the investigation

Our policy is to refer allegations to be investigated locally wherever possible.

Who is notified when a case is referred for local investigation?

The ethical standards officer will notify the member being investigated, the person who made the allegation, and, in cases involving parish and town councillors, the clerk of the relevant authority. The monitoring officer will then contact the parties and make arrangements to conduct the investigation.

Who conducts a local investigation?

The investigation may be conducted by the monitoring officer, another officer within the authority, or a third party contracted by the monitoring officer.

Can a monitoring officer refer the case back to the Standards Board?

During the course of the investigation, a monitoring officer may ask the ethical standards officer to take the investigation back. Depending upon the circumstances of the case, the ethical standards officer may consider it appropriate to accept the matter back and continue the investigation. Circumstances where it may be appropriate for the ethical standards officer to take the matter back include (but are not limited to):

• where investigation shows that the matter is more serious than it first appeared
• where investigation reveals further conduct which may amount to a failure to comply with the Code of Conduct — the monitoring officer has no power to extend an investigation beyond the matters referred to him or her, whereas an ethical standards officer has
• the member is obstructing or refusing to co-operate with the investigation

What is the outcome of a local investigation?

At the end of a local investigation, a report is prepared by the person conducting the investigation.

The monitoring officer must provide a copy of the report to the standards committee for consideration.

If the report concludes that there has not been a breach of the Code of Conduct and the standards committee agrees, a notice will be published stating that there has been no failure to comply with the Code. The member can ask the committee not to publish this notice. If the standards committee disagrees that there has been no failure to comply with the Code, it must hold a hearing to consider the matter in full.

If the report concludes that there has been a failure to comply with the Code, the standards committee must hold a hearing to determine the matter, and if it concludes that the Code was breached, it can impose a range of sanctions on the member including suspension for up to three months.

At any point prior to completion of the hearing, the standards committee may ask the ethical standards officer to take the matter back for investigation if it appears that the sanctions available to the standards committee are not serious enough.

What is a direction?

In certain circumstances, an ethical standards officer may decide that some form of action other than investigation is appropriate. This is most likely to happen in situations where the ethical standards officer considers that a case has relevance for the ethical governance of an authority and that the issues involved will not be resolved by making a finding against an individual member.

The ethical standards officer may decide in this instance to issue a direction to the monitoring officer to take certain other action, rather than carry out an investigation. For example, the ethical standards officer could make recommendations to the standards committee about wider issues for the authority, or direct the committee to arrange some form of mediation between parties.

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