If you consider that your local councillor has acted inappropriately what can you do?
If you want to make a complaint about the conduct of a councillor, you can fill in a complaints form and send it to the standards committee of the council concerned. If your complaint is about a county councillor, you should send it to Suffolk County Council. If your complaint is about a borough, parish or town councillor, you should send it to your local district or borough council – in other words, the council that collects your council tax.
What can you complain about?
You can complain about a councillor breaking any part of the authority's Code of Conduct. This includes:
- failing to treat people with respect;
- causing the local authority to breach equality laws;
- revealing information that was given to them in confidence, or stopping someone getting information they are entitled to by law;
- damaging the reputation of their office or authority;
- using their position improperly, to their own or someone else's advantage or disadvantage;
- misusing the authority's resources;
- allowing the authority's resources to be misused for the activities of a registered political party;
- failing to reveal a personal interest at a meeting;
- compromising the impartiality of officers; and
- taking part in a meeting or making a decision where the member has an interest that is so significant that it is likely to affect his or her judgement.
The Code of Conduct sets out the rules governing the behaviour of councillors in local authorities across the country. Most councils have adopted a model form of the code. You can obtain a copy by contacting the monitoring officer of your district, borough or county council.
The full text of the code can be found on The council's constitution in: Part 5- Codes and Protocols (PDF 267Kb) and more can be found in the leaflet: How to make a complaint about a councillor (PDF 516Kb).
What is not covered?
The Standards Committee will not look at complaints that are about:
- people employed by the council or authority;
- incidents that happened before the member was elected or chosen to serve;
- incidents that happened either before the authority adopted the Code of Conduct or before 5 May 2002, whichever is earlier;
- the way an authority conducts or records its meetings;
- the way an authority has or has not done something. For county, district and borough councils this may be a matter for county, district and borough Ombudsman if the authority has not dealt with the matter properly and it has not been resolved locally; or
- decisions of the authority or one of the services it provides. In this case, you should ask how to complain using the authority's own complaints system.
How to get a complaints form
Forms can be downloaded from your district, borough or county council website or they are available from your local council receptions.
If you want to complain that a St Edmundsbury Borough Councillor, or a councillor representing a town or parish within the borough, has failed to comply with the Code of Conduct then please:
Please note that all complaints have to be in writing and the councillor will normally be told who you are and what you have complained about. However, you can ask that your complaint be kept confidential and this request will be considered by the borough council's Standards Committee. Anonymous complaints will not be accepted.
What happens next?
The assessment sub-committee can only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a councillor. It will not deal with complaints about things that are not covered by the Code of Conduct. Any complaints must be clear as to why the complainant thinks that a councillor has not followed the code of Conduct.
We aim to make an initial assessment of the complaint within 20 working days of receipt. If the decision is to take no further action, complainants will have the right to ask for that initial decision to be reviewed.
If, after an investigation, it appears that there has been a breach of the code then a hearing will be held and the councillor given the chance to explain or defend his/her actions. The Standards Committee then decides whether there was a breach or not and if so what sanction should be imposed - this ranges from censure to six months' suspension.
More information about the Code of Conduct and the role of standards can be found on the website of the national body, Standards for England at www.standardsforengland.gov.uk.
If you want any clarification of the above, or to discuss whether a particular case is a breach of the code or not, the Monitoring Officer will be happy to deal with your enquiries - contact Joy Bowes, email: joy.bowes@stedsbc.gov.uk or phone: 01284 75714.
