To make a complaint that a councillor has breached the Members Code of Conduct please complete the complain about a Councillor form.
This covers a member or co-opted member of Sefton Council, or a member of any Town or Parish Council within the Borough of Sefton who has failed to comply with the Code of Conduct.
Please note that the Code only applies to a councillor when they are acting in their capacity as a councillor of Sefton Council or one of the parish / town councils in the borough.
When completing for the form please explain which parts of the Code you consider that a member has breached and provide as much detail as possible to support your view.
Upon receipt of the form the Council’s Monitoring Officer will review the complaint to ensure it is a valid complaint and if so, will try in the first instance to resolve the matter informally between the complainant and the councillor in question. The Monitoring Officer may ask the complainant for additional information before deciding how to deal with the complaint. If the complaint cannot be concluded in this way, it will be referred to a meeting of the Audit and Governance Initial Assessment Sub-Committee who will decide whether any further action should be taken in relation to the complaint which could involve a referral to the Monitoring officer for a full investigation.
Should the compliant be the subject of a full investigation and a finding is found that a member has breached the Code please note that the Council has no power to suspend or ban a councillor from holding office.
The possible sanctions may be applied:
- Reporting the findings to the Council or Parish Council
- Recommending to the subject members Group Leader or Parish Council, or in the case of a member who does not belong to such a group, to the Council or Parish Council that they be removed from committees or sub-committees of the Council
- Recommending to the Leader of the Council that the member be removed from the Cabinet or removed from a particular portfolio
- Recommending the arrangement of training for the member
- Recommending to the Cabinet to remove the member of all outside body appointments to which the member has been appointed or nominated to by the Cabinet or Council as appropriate
- Depending upon the nature of the breach, one of the following maybe appropriate – withdrawal of facilities such as Council email, equipment, etc or exclusion of the member from Council offices except to attend meetings.