Solicitors Regulation Authority dismisses referral of council monitoring officer with no action taken
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has ended its consideration of a referral made by Teignbridge District Council against its former monitoring officer Karen Trickey, with no action taken.
Teignbridge referred Trickey to the SRA in April of this year. The local authority's reasoning behind the referral was unclear.
Councillors had initially passed a resolution to refer Trickey to the SRA during an extraordinary council meeting in February, which concerned the authority's response to a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report.
An officer's report prepared for the extraordinary meeting at which the resolution was passed did not include a recommendation to refer Trickey to the SRA.
The Ombudsman's report found fault with how the council had investigated a Code of Conduct complaint against Cllr Richard Daws of the 'South Devon Alliance' party.
In the course of the Ombudsman's investigation, it was revealed that the council said that "no formal complaint was received with regards to the conduct of Cllr Daws" but that its monitoring officer (then Trickey) did receive "written complaints/concerns/allegations" about Cllr Daws, which she "considered were written allegations".
The council initially delayed making the referral after the resolution in order to consider legal advice on the issue.
As part of the resolution, councillors agreed to ask the Head of Legal Services to write to the Government and the Local Government Association seeking further clarity – amongst other things – with regard to:
- Whether the Ombudsman has "effectively created a new appeal process" and suggested process changes above that required by legislation;
- the role of the Ombudsman Service, which has, previous to Cllr Daws’ complaint and subsequently, declined to consider councillors' complaints about Standards.
According to a council spokesperson, Teignbridge is yet to receive a response from the Government and the LGA to its letter.
A spokesperson for the SRA confirmed to Local Government Lawyer last week its decision not to take any action.
Adam Carey
