In some circumstances, it can currently take up to 4.5 months to conduct an initial assessment for some complaints, particularly if they are complex. We are doing everything we can to reduce this time. You can find average timescales for each stage of complaint handling across all types of complaints here.

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How we investigate complaints about Councillors and Board Members of Public Bodies

Find out more about how we’ll investigate your complaint in the sections below.

Each complaint received will be assessed to determine whether it is one that we will investigate.

We cannot investigate complaints about a councillor when they are not acting in that capacity. This is because the Councillors’ Code of Conduct does not apply to their personal or private life. Furthermore, the Code only covers a councillor’s conduct as a councillor, not their performance. 

If you are unsure whether the Councillors’ Code of Conduct applies to the conduct you wish to complain about, the Standards Commission for Scotland have published a helpful Advice Note on “When the Code Applies”. 

You should make your complaint within 12 months of the event/behaviour that you wish to complain about happening.  Please note that if a complaint is within the 12 month period but the date of the complaint is on or close to the anniversary of the alleged event/behaviour happening, the Commissioner may decide that a meaningful investigation cannot be conducted or that it is no longer proportionate or in the public interest to investigate your complaint.

 

You may wish to submit documentation in support of your complaint. If so, you may wish to consider limiting that documentation to what is directly helpful and relevant. This would greatly assist us in being able to assess or investigate your complaint as timeously as possible. Where needed, we will be in touch to ask you, or others, for more information as part of the complaint assessment process.

We aim to complete our assessment of your complaint as soon as we can from the date we receive your complaint. If we decide not to investigate your complaint we will write to you explaining our reasons.

Where we decide not to investigate your complaint, the Commissioner’s decision is final and there is no right of appeal.

Useful links:

The Standard Commission for Scotland's Advice Note to Members of the Public on the Councillors Code of Conduct

The Standard Commission for Scotland's Advice Note for Members of the Public on the Model Code of Conduct for Members of Public Bodies

The Councillors Code of Conduct 2021

The Model Code of Conduct for Members of Public Bodies 2021

If we decide to investigate your complaint, we will write to you confirming the matters we are investigating.

At this stage, we will write to the person you have complained about and the Council or public body that they represent. We will share a copy of your complaint with them, along with any supporting documentation you have provided. We’ll remove the personal details of third parties from these documents before sharing them. In appropriate cases, your name may be withheld.

We may also contact other people who can help with our investigation.

We may need to interview witnesses. Interviews are conducted informally (usually by telephone or video call). Anyone being interviewed can bring along another person for support. There are more details in our witness policy. If necessary, we can compel witnesses to attend and to produce documents. 

The length of the time it takes to complete the investigation depends on the complexity and seriousness of the concerns. We will complete the investigation as quickly and efficiently as we can.

At the end of the investigation, we will consider the available evidence and decide whether or not this indicates there has been a contravention of the Codes of Conduct. 

If we conclude that there has been a contravention, the person you have complained about will have an opportunity to review our conclusions and provide comments before we report on the outcome of our investigation to the Standards Commission for Scotland. Once we finalise our report we will write to you and give you reasons for our decision. We will send a copy of the final report to the person you have complained about, the council or public body and to the Standards Commission for Scotland.

If we conclude that there has not been a contravention, we will write to you, the person you have complained about and the council or public body informing you of this and giving the reasons for our decision. We will also send a copy of the report to the Standards Commission for Scotland.

Upon receipt of the report, the Standards Commission for Scotland will decide to:

  • ask us to investigate further
  • hold a public hearing or
  • take no action.

The Standards Commission for Scotland will be in touch with you directly to inform you of their decision.

If a public hearing is held, we will present the case to the Standards Commission for Scotland.

You can find out more about what happens on their website, Standards Commission for Scotland.  

You may decide, at some point, to withdraw your complaint.  Once a complaint has been made, it is for us to decide whether to end or to continue an investigation. Please write to us with the request to withdraw your complaint, giving as much detail as possible.  When reaching our decision, we will take into account:

  • your request,
  • the stage the investigation has reached,
  • the public interest in ending or concluding our investigations and
  • the wishes of any other person who has complained about the conduct in question.