Council set to bring in protocol to deal with low level member on member complaints in accordance with Public Services Ombudsman for Wales guidance

Its standards committee has considered the idea, which is due to go to full council.

A report to the committee said the Ombudsman had made it clear that Welsh councils were expected to establish a Local Resolution Protocol  (LRP) to reduce the number of complaints referred to the ombudsman that turned out to concern only low-level behavioural issues that “typically arise in the ‘cut and thrust’ of normal council debates and local politics”.

Guidance from the Ombudsman to councils has stated: “In my view such complaints are more appropriately resolved informally and locally in order to speed up the ‘complaints process and to ensure that my resources are devoted to the investigation of serious complaints.

“The aim of local resolution is to resolve matters at an early stage so as to avoid the unnecessary escalation of the situation which may damage personal relationships within the authority and the authority’s reputation.”

The report noted a working group set up by the all-Wales Monitoring Officers Group had instructed counsel to advise on the operation and extent of LRPs, and following this had recommended all councils to review their protocols.

The group said these should only apply to low level, member-on-member complaints but could optionally include complaints by officers.

Behaviour standards should be specified and advice sought from the monitoring officer on the remit of the LRP.

It said that should a member wish to refer the matter concerned to the Ombudsman “then they must do this themselves to ensure that the monitoring officer’s role remains impartial” and the protocol could not remove a member’s right to go to the Ombudsman.

Despite this, the report noted: “The Ombudsman has made clear that members are in the first instance expected to exhaust local processes in relation to low level issues before referring a matter to the Ombudsman.”

The protocol would not apply to complaints from members of the public, or complaints by members about an officer.

Guidance stated that the inclusion of a hearing stage “is not advisable because of perceived predetermination and a lack of statutory basis”.

Under Monmouthshire’s proposed protocol, stage one would involve the monitoring officer attempting to resolve the matter informally.

If that was impossible, a second stage would involve mediation between the parties, including group leaders, and the chair of the Standards Committee if they wished to attend.

The report prepared for the standards committee noted that the  Welsh Government had recently held a series of workshops in relation to LRPs as part
of an information gathering exercise on the application and effectiveness of these in practice.

It said: "The Monitoring Officer attended one of these workshops in December. Enquiries were made as to whether Welsh Government intended to produce guidance on LRPs or a model LRP for Councils to adopt. However, the Monitoring Officer was informed that the review is at an early stage and that it was not possible to advise when, or indeed if at all, any such guidance or draft LRP would be produced."

Mark Smulian