Supporting notes to assist in completion of the
form to make a complaint about the conduct of members and
co-opted members of Suffolk County Council.
Please read these notes before completing the complaints
form:
- What type of complaint can the Standards Committee
consider?
- Is this the correct form for you?
- How should you set out your complaint?
- Submitting your complaint
- What happens next?
- Contact information
1. What type of complaint can the Standards Committee
consider?
The council’s
Standards 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.
Frequently asked questions about the Code of Conduct are
available on the
Standards
Board for England web site.
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2. Is this the correct form for you?
The points listed below will help you decide whether this is the
correct form to use when making your complaint. You should speak to
the Committee Services Manager if you are
not clear if the Standards Committee can consider your complaint.
The Assessment Sub-Committee of the
Standards Committee will make the decision about what action,
if any, to take on your complaint.
- Your complaint must be about conduct that occurred while the
member(s) complained about were in office. Conduct of an individual
before they were elected, co-opted or appointed to the council, or
after they have resigned or otherwise ceased to be a member, cannot
be considered by the Assessment Sub-Committee.
- The County Council adopted the
Code of Conduct on 24 May 2007. If your complaint concerns
matters that occurred before 8 May 2008 you should contact the
Committee Services Manager before making
your complaint to check whether the Assessment Sub-Committee can
consider it.
- Your complaint must be about one or more named members of
Suffolk County Council.
- Complaints about dissatisfaction with a decision or action of
the county council or one of its committees, a service provided by
the council or the council’s procedures cannot be considered by the
Standards Committee. Complaints about the actions of people
employed by the council also cannot be considered by the Standards
Committee.
More
about the SCC complaints procedure.
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3. How should you set out your complaint?
It is very important that you set your complaint out fully and
clearly, and provide all the information at the outset. You should
also provide any documents or other material that you wish the
Assessment Sub-Committee to consider, where possible. Unless the
council advises you otherwise, you will not be able to attend the
meeting of the Assessment Sub–Committee.
We recommend that you use our complaint form or provide a
covering note summarising what you are complaining about,
especially if your complaint includes a lot of supporting
documentation. In the summary you should tell us exactly what each
person you are complaining about said or did that has caused you to
complain. If you are sending supporting documentation, please
cross-reference it against the summary of your complaint.
You should be as detailed as possible and substantiate your
complaint where you can. Although you are not required to prove
your complaint at this stage of proceedings, you do have to
demonstrate that you have reasonable grounds for believing that the
member(s) complained about has breached the
Code of Conduct.
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4. Submitting your complaint
Complaints must be submitted in writing. This includes fax and
electronic submissions. Please send your completed paper form to
Committee Services.
In line with the requirements of the
Disability Discrimination Act 2000, we can make reasonable
adjustments to assist you if you have a disability that prevents
you from making your complaint in writing.
We can also help if English is not your first language.
If you need any support in completing this form,
please let us know as soon as possible.
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5. What happens next?
When you submit your complaint we will write to you to let you
know we have received it. We will also tell the member that you are
complaining about that we have received your complaint, who made
the complaint and the relevant paragraphs of the
Code of Conduct that it is alleged may have been breached.
However, where this could prejudice our ability to investigate a
complaint we may decide that no advance notification will be
given.
The Assessment Sub-Committee will then meet to consider your
complaint and decide whether it should be referred for
investigation or other action. This will happen within an average
of 20 working days of the date we receive your complaint. Meetings
of the Assessment Sub-Committee are ‘closed’, which means that you
will not be able to attend. It is therefore very important that you
set your complaint out clearly and provide at the outset all the
information you wish the Assessment Sub-Committee to consider.
The Assessment Sub-Committee must make one of three decisions
about your complaint:
- to take no action;
- to refer the matter for investigation;
- to refer the matter for alternative action.
When the Assessment Sub-Committee has reached its decision we
will notify you in writing whether your complaint has been referred
for investigation or other action. At the same time we write to
you, we will also write to the member(s) you have complained about.
We will send these letters within five working days of the
Assessment Sub-Committee reaching its decision. The decision of the
Assessment Sub-Committee is made available for public inspection
once the member the complaint is about has been given a summary of
the complaint. In very limited situations the member may not be
given this summary immediately and if so, any public inspection
will not happen until the member does get the summary.
If the Assessment Sub-Committee decides that the complaint
should be referred to the
Monitoring Officer or the
Standards Board for
England, it will send a summary of the complaint to the
relevant people, stating what the allegation is, and what type of
referral has been made.
The Assessment Sub-Committee may decide to refer your complaint
for ‘other action’ instead of referring it for investigation.
‘Other action’ is a deliberately broad term that may include
options such as requiring the person you have complained about to
apologise or undergo training or mediation. The Assessment
Sub-Committee will carefully consider the circumstances surrounding
your complaint when deciding whether other action is appropriate.
If the Assessment Sub-Committee decides to refer your complaint for
other action we will explain what this involves.
If the Assessment Sub-Committee decides to take no action over a
complaint, it will let you know as soon as possible after making
the decision, and will give you reasons for that decision
Where the decision is to take no action, you will have 30
working days to request a review of that decision.
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Contact information
If you have any queries about this process, please do not
hesitate to contact:
Colin Sweeney
Committee Services Manager
Suffolk County Council
Endeavour House
8 Russell Road
Ipswich
IP1 2BX
Telephone: 01473 264373
Email:
colin.sweeney@resman.suffolkcc.gov.uk
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