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Making a complaint: Complaining about the behaviour of a member of Lambeth Council

From 8 May 2008 the responsibility for considering complaints that a member may have breached the Code of Conduct is moving to the standards committees of local authorities.

What this means to you

After 8 May 2008 if you want to complain about the conduct of a member of Lambeth Council (the Council) you must submit your complaint to:

Mr S Philips
Chair of the Standards (Assessment) Sub-Committee
C/O The Corporate Complaints Manager
Lambeth Town Hall
Brixton Hill
London SW2 1RW

What is the Council's Standards Committee?

The Standards Committee is a group of people appointed by the Council to help maintain and promote high ethical standards. It is made up of both elected members and independent people.

What complaints does the Standards Committee deal with?

The Standards Committee and its (Assessment) Sub-Committee can only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a member. It will not deal with complaints about things that are not covered by the Members' Code of Conduct. If you make a complaint to the Standards (Assessment) Sub-Committee it must be about why you think a member has not followed the Code of Conduct.

The Standards Committee will not look at complaints that are about:

  • Staff employed by the Council.
  • Incidents that happened before a member was elected or chosen to serve.
  • Incidents that happened before 23 May 2002, when the Council originally adopted the Model Code of Conduct.
  • The way the Council conducts or records its meetings.
  • The way the Council has or has not done something. This may be a matter for the Local Government Ombudsman if the Council has not dealt with the matter properly and it has not been resolved locally.
  • Decisions of the Council or its Cabinet or one of the services the Council provides. In this case, you should ask how to complain using the Council's corporate complaints system, which can be found on the Council’s website (www.lambeth.gov.uk).

What will happen to your complaint?

Once you have made a complaint, you will be told in writing what will happen to it. If it is decided that the Standards (Assessment) Sub-Committee should deal with your complaint, three members of the sub-committee will meet to decide what should happen next. The meeting will be chaired by one of the independent people on the Standards Committee. This should happen within 20 days.

The sub-committee can decide to:

  • Investigate your complaint.
  • Take some other action.
  • Send it to the Standards Board for England to investigate.
  • Send it to the standards committee of another authority if the member belongs to that authority.
  • Take no further action.

What is "other action"?

"Other action" is usually some form of conflict resolution, mediation or training. This decision is reached where the sub-committee decides that it is likely to resolve the situation more effectively than an investigation and possible sanction.

What if the Standards Committee decides to take no further action and you don’t agree?

The law says that the Standards Committee should take reasonable steps to tell you the reason for its decision. You may not agree with the reasons, or think that it did not make the decision properly, or you may have new information that you think might affect its decision. If so, you can ask the committee to review its decision. You have to ask it to do this in writing within 30 calendar days of receiving its decision.

The Standards Committee must consider your request within three months.

The decision will be reviewed by three members of the Standards Committee. None of the people who made the original decision are allowed to take part in the review. This meeting will be chaired by one of the independent people on the Standards Committee. They can uphold the original decision or overturn it, and will tell you in writing what they have decided.

What is the Standards Board for England's role?

The Standards Board for England (SBE) provides national, independent oversight of the Council’s operation of the complaints' process.

To do this, the SBE has various powers and responsibilities, which are set out below:

  • It can give the Council's Standards Committee and Council members guidance on understanding the Council's Code of Conduct and how to deal with complaints about the conduct of Council members.
  • It can investigate the most serious complaints where the Council's Standards Committee believes it is not best placed to deal with these and the Standards Boards agrees.
  • It can publish information about how the Council and other authorities are dealing with complaints about their members.
  • It can require the Council to inform the Standards Board how well the Council is dealing with complaints about the conduct of Council members.
  • If necessary, it can work with the Council’s Standards Committee to help it improve if it does not deal with complaints about Council members properly.
  • It can take away the power of the Council’s Standards Committee to receive complaints about Council members if the SBE considers this necessary.

Mark Hynes
Monitoring Officer
Lambeth Council


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