Making a Complaint
Your complaint should be put in writing. We would prefer you to make your complaint using our complaint form, because it contains notes of guidance which you might find helpful.
If you have difficulty in making a written complaint, please contact the Monitoring Officer at the address below, or call and ask them and they will help you.
You have a choice as to how to send in your complaint, using our 
complaint form. You can:
- fill the form in online and send to us by pressing the submit button on the form, or by email to monitoring.officer@southhams.gov.uk;
- print off the complaint form, complete it by hand (please write legibly using black ink because it will be photocopied) or using a typewriter; or
- ask the Monitoring Officer to send you a printed version to complete by hand.
Complaint forms completed by hand should be either delivered to or sent by post to:
|
The Monitoring Officer
South Hams District Council
Follaton House
Plymouth Road
TOTNES
Devon
TQ9 5NE |
Alternatively fax it to: 01803 861477. |
You should send in any documents which support what you are saying with the complaint form. Take care to include everything you think the Assessment Sub-Committee will need to see.
You may take it for granted (1) that the councillor concerned will read what you send in, because they have a right to know what they are being accused of and by whom, and (2) that if the complaint is investigated and proceeds to a hearing, it will all become public. The Standards Committee can resolve that certain matters should not be disclosed to the public, but it is their decision, which has to be taken on advice. If you are concerned that in making a complaint certain facts will become public, you can call and ask the Monitoring Officer for advice about it.
Your complaint may be anonymous, but if so, it will be difficult for us to deal with it as you may wish. The councillor about whom you are complaining is entitled to know who is complaining (the law requires this as a matter of natural justice, or human rights if you prefer) and anonymous complaints carry much less weight. Please read the guidance on the complaint form about this.
What do we do with a complaint?
The Monitoring Officer will acknowledge your complaint; will tell the councillor concerned and the clerk to the council they represent that a complaint has been made; will give them an outline of the complaint (they do not get a copy of it at this stage); and will submit your complaint to the next available Assessment Sub-Committee of the Standards Committee. We try to do this within 20 working days.
The assessment sub-committee will decide one of three things:
- that the complaint should be referred to the Monitoring Officer for investigation;
- that the complaint should be referred to the Monitoring Officer for some other action; or
- that no further action should be taken.
The sub-committee’s meeting is not a public meeting, and neither the complainant nor the councillor may attend. The papers are not published. The sub-committee makes its decision entirely on what appears from the papers it has, so it is important that you supply sufficient evidence to explain what has gone wrong. The Monitoring Officer may be able to add official papers such as council or committee minutes, or correspondence, but they are not allowed to make your case for you.
You can view the Council’s adopted Assessment Procedure here. This explains the process that will be followed and the considerations that the sub-committee will apply.
(1) Referral for Investigation by the Monitoring Officer
If the sub-committee decides that there is some substance in the complaint they will refer it for investigation. The Monitoring Officer will arrange for someone to investigate (this may be another District Council officer or an independent person) and that person will interview the complainant, the member concerned, and anyone else who may appear to have relevant information. They will also collect all relevant documents. In due course the investigating officer will write a report. This process may take many weeks.
The complainant and the councillor concerned will see the draft report and can comment on it before it is submitted. After that the report is submitted to the Standards Committee at a “consideration” hearing, when the Committee will consider whether to accept the findings.
Findings
The investigating officer will decide whether they think there has been a breach of the Code or not.
If the investigating officer finds that there has been no breach, the Committee may accept that finding and the matter is then concluded. There will be no hearing (and the councillor will not be called upon to explain what they did). The outcome will be published in the local paper unless the councillor concerned requests to the contrary.
If the investigating officer finds that there has been a breach, and the committee accepts that, the complaint is likely to proceed to a hearing when the councillor concerned has a right to attend, call witnesses, and make such submissions as they wish about it.
(2) Referral for Investigation by Standards for England
Standards for England, formerly the Standards Board, was abolished in January 2012.
(3) Referral for “Other Action”
“Other action” is steps required to be taken other than an investigation. It is in lieu of an investigation; the “other action” taken replaces any investigation and will resolve the complaint. There will be no finding that the councillor concerned has breached the code. “Other action” may be training for the councillor personally, or together with other members of their council; mediation or conciliation of a dispute, where that is hindering the proper progress of business in a council or between the council, a councillor, and anyone else; or some other steps that appear to be appropriate.
(4) No Further Action
The Committee may conclude that no further action should be taken when they consider, based on the evidence before them, that there has been no breach of the Code; or, that there was a breach but it is comparatively minor and no useful purpose would be served by ordering an investigation or any other action. If they so conclude, that is the end of the matter, unless the complainant is unwilling to accept that decision. In that case the complainant can ask for the decision to be reviewed by a separate sub-committee of the Standards Committee.
Reviews
The Review Sub-Committee of the Standards Committee consists of three members who did not take part in the original assessment of the complaint. Requests for a review must be in writing and should state why you think the assessment should be reconsidered. The Review Sub-Committee may consider fresh material. Your request must be sent to the Monitoring Officer (using any of the methods described above for making a complaint) within 30 days of the decision objected to.
The Review Sub-Committee may make the same decisions as the Assessment Sub-Committee, namely:
- that the complaint should be referred to the Monitoring Officer for investigation;
- that the complaint should be referred to the Monitoring Officer for some other action; or
- that no further action should be taken.
If there is substantial new evidence, it may also decide that the matter should be re-assessed as a fresh complaint.
If the Review Sub-Committee decides that there should be no further action, that is the end of the matter.
