Parish Council Complaints Procedure: Handling Code of Conduct Complaints

A resident contacts your council to complain about a councillor's behaviour at last night's planning meeting. A neighbouring parish clerk emails to report that one of your councillors made threats during a joint committee discussion. A councillor files a complaint against another councillor.

Your instinct as clerk is to try to resolve it. That instinct is wrong — at least for code of conduct complaints. Here is what to do instead.

Two types of complaints

Parish councils receive two distinct types of complaint, and they follow entirely different processes. Mixing them up is one of the most common governance errors clerks make.

Service complaints: A resident is unhappy with something the council has done (or failed to do) — grass cutting, planning consultation handling, allotment management, minutes not published on time. The council handles these internally using its own complaints procedure.

Code of conduct complaints: Someone alleges that a councillor has breached the council's code of conduct — disrespectful behaviour, undeclared interests, misuse of council resources, bullying. These go to the principal authority's monitoring officer, not to the parish council.

The critical distinction: you investigate service complaints. You do not investigate code of conduct complaints.

Code of conduct complaints: the clerk's role

Under Section 28 of the Localism Act 2011, your principal authority (the district, borough, or unitary council) must have arrangements for handling allegations that a councillor has breached the code of conduct. This includes appointing at least one independent person whose views are sought before a decision is made on investigated complaints.

Your role as clerk when a code of conduct complaint arrives:

1. Do not investigate. You are not the monitoring officer. You do not have the authority to investigate code of conduct complaints, and any investigation you conduct has no standing.

2. Direct the complainant to the monitoring officer. Provide the monitoring officer's name, contact details, and the principal authority's complaints process. Many principal authorities have an online form. Make this information easy to find — publish the monitoring officer's contact details on your council website alongside the code of conduct.

3. Do not discuss the substance of the complaint with councillors. If you tell the accused councillor "Mrs Smith has complained about your behaviour at the planning meeting," you have potentially compromised a future investigation. The monitoring officer decides who is told what and when.

4. Record that the complaint was received. Note in your records (not in public minutes) the date the complaint was received, the complainant's name, and that you directed them to the monitoring officer. This is your evidence that you handled it properly.

5. Do not mediate. Offering to "sort things out" between the complainant and the councillor may seem helpful, but it undermines the formal process. If the complaint later escalates, informal mediation can complicate matters.

6. Cooperate with the monitoring officer's investigation. If the monitoring officer decides to investigate, they may ask you for meeting minutes, agendas, correspondence, or other council records. Provide these promptly.

What happens after a complaint is filed

The monitoring officer follows this general process (exact procedures vary by principal authority):

1. Initial assessment — the monitoring officer decides whether the complaint warrants investigation, sometimes consulting the independent person
2. Investigation (if warranted) — the monitoring officer or their delegate investigates and produces a report
3. Standards hearing — if a breach is found, the principal authority's standards committee holds a hearing
4. Outcome — if a breach is upheld, sanctions can include formal censure, removal from committees, or a recommendation to apologise

A significant limitation: parish councillors cannot be suspended or removed from office for code of conduct breaches. There is currently no statutory power to do so, although Parliament has debated introducing one. The strongest sanction available is a formal censure and removal from committee positions.

Service complaints: the council's process

For complaints about council services (not councillor conduct), the council should have its own written complaints procedure. If your council does not have one, adopt one — it protects both the council and the complainant.

A standard three-stage process:

Stage 1 — Informal resolution. The clerk attempts to resolve the issue directly with the complainant. Acknowledge the complaint within 5 working days and aim to resolve within 15 working days.

Stage 2 — Formal complaint. If the complainant is not satisfied with the Stage 1 response, they submit a formal written complaint. The council considers it at the next available meeting (or delegates to a complaints committee). Respond within 20 working days.

Stage 3 — Review. If still unresolved, the complainant may request a review by the full council. The council's decision at this stage is final.

Important: The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman generally cannot investigate parish council complaints — parish and town councils are not within the Ombudsman's jurisdiction under the Local Government Act 1974. The exception is where a parish council is acting on behalf of another council (e.g., a delegated service). Make sure complainants understand this — directing them to the Ombudsman when the Ombudsman cannot help wastes everyone's time.

Common mistakes

Blurring the two types. A councillor complaint sometimes includes a service complaint ("the councillor was rude AND the council didn't fix my hedge"). Separate them: the service element stays with the council, the conduct element goes to the monitoring officer.

Treating a complaint about a decision as a conduct complaint. A resident disagrees with a planning consultation response. That is a service complaint, not a code of conduct matter — unless the councillor(s) involved had undeclared interests or behaved improperly during the decision-making process.

Discussing complaints under AOB. Code of conduct matters should never appear on a public agenda. If the council needs to discuss its response to an investigation, this may need to be in a confidential session — take advice from the monitoring officer.

No written procedure. If you do not have a documented complaints procedure, adopt one. Without one, each complaint is handled ad hoc, responses are inconsistent, and the council is vulnerable to challenge.

For the full code of conduct framework — adoption, interests register, declarations at meetings, and annual review — see our complete clerk's guide to the code of conduct.

Check your council's governance compliance using the free compliance checklist.

Sources

• Localism Act 2011, Section 28 — Codes of conduct
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman — Parish and town councils fact sheet

This article is for general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific questions about code of conduct complaints, contact your principal authority's monitoring officer.