If the Monitoring Officer decides that, based on the public interest, a complaint merits formal investigation, they will appoint an Investigating Officer, who may be (pending a conflict of interests test) the Monitoring Officer themselves, a Deputy Monitoring Officer, another senior officer of the District Council, an officer of another authority or an external investigator. 

An investigation must follow the base principles of proportionality, fairness, transparency and impartiality.

At the start of an investigation clarity will be provided by the Investigating Officer as to precisely what is being investigated and which parts of the Code of Conduct are being investigated against (albeit this can be expanded as the investigation progresses).  This scope is then notified to you, the subject Member, the Independent Person and the relevant town or parish council if the subject member is a town or parish councillor.

The Investigating Officer will decide whether he/she needs to meet or speak to you to understand the nature of your complaint and so that you can explain your understanding of events and suggest what documents the Investigating Officer needs to see, and who the Investigating Officer needs to interview.

The Investigating Officer would normally write to the member against whom you have complained and provide him/her with a copy of your complaint, ask the member to provide his/her explanation of events, and to identify what documents he needs to see and who he needs to interview. In exceptional cases, where it is appropriate to keep your identity confidential or disclosure of details of the complaint to the member might prejudice the investigation, the Monitoring Officer can delete your name and address from the papers given to the member, or delay notifying the member until the investigation has progressed sufficiently.

At the end of his/her investigation, the Investigating Officer will produce a draft report and will, if they are not the Monitoring Officer, send a copy of that draft report to the Monitoring Officer to comment. After this the Investigating Officer will send copies of their draft report, in confidence, to you and to the member concerned, to give you both an opportunity to identify any matter in that draft report which you disagree with or which you consider requires more consideration.

Having received and taken account of any comments that you may make on the draft report, the Investigating Officer will send his/her final report to the Monitoring Officer (if they are not Monitoring Officer). 

The Investigating Officer’s report must make one of the following findings on the balance of probabilities (1) that there have been one or more failures to comply with the Code of Conduct or (2) that there has not been a failure to comply with the Code.

What happens if the investigating officer concludes that there is no evidence of a failure to comply with the code of conduct?

The Monitoring Officer will review the Investigating Officer’s report and, if he/she is satisfied that the Investigating Officer’s report is sufficient, the Monitoring Officer will write to you and to the member concerned and to the parish or town council, where your complaint relates to a Parish or Town Councillor, notifying you that he/she is satisfied that no further action is required, and give you both a copy of the Investigating Officer’s final report. If the Monitoring Officer is not satisfied that the investigation has been conducted properly, he may ask the Investigating Officer to reconsider his/her report.

What happens if the investigating officer concludes that there is evidence of a failure to comply with the code of conduct?

The Monitoring Officer will review the Investigating Officer’s report and will then either send the matter for local hearing before a special meeting of the Governance Committee or, after consulting the Independent Person, seek informal resolution see Informal Resolution.