Complaints made against Peterborough councillors over 'alleged disclosure of information' and 'potential conflicts of interest'

Five complaints against councillors have been received by Peterborough City Council (PCC) over the last three months.

The council updates members of its constitution and ethics committee on code of conduct complaints, made either by members of the public or fellow councillors, at each of its meetings.

Since October last year, five new complaints have been received, the council says.

One of these concerns “potential conflicts of interest” and another concerns “alleged disclosure of information”.

The most recent complaint concerns “alleged actions by a member towards a member of their own family”.

One of the others, relating to comments made on social media, is not being pursued any further, the council adds, while the final complaint simply relates to “alleged actions from a member”.

Reports about complaints against councillors presented to the constitution and ethics committee have been more detailed in the past.

For instance, complaints made against city councillors and parish councillors have been reported separately, but this isn’t the case in the most recent update report.

PCC’s Interim Director for Legal and Governance, Adesuwa Omoregie, said that this is one of the changes she has introduced because “everyone is entitled to privacy”.

“Until the investigation has been completed, it should remain confidential and there have been instances where, because we’ve been able to identify whether it’s a city councillor or a parish councillor, it has been easy to identify what’s happened even if the outcome is that no action is taken,” she told councillors.

Code of complaints complaints against councillors are made to Ms Omoregie, after which she will determine whether they warrant investigation.

They may be resolved through an informal apology or deemed not to require further action.

In the most serious cases, they may result in a hearing.

If a councillor is found to have breached the code of conduct in this setting they could face being removed from any PCC committees they’re on or from other roles they hold within the council at the discretion of their party leader.

PCC typically receives a handful of complaints against councillors each year.

Last year, 12 new complaints were reported to the constitution and ethics committee, up from eight in 2022, seven in 2021, 10 in 2020 and six in 2019.