Complain about an MSP, councillor or public body member

You can complain to the Ethical Standards Commissioner (‘the Commissioner’) if you’re unhappy with an:

• MSP
• councillor
• board member of a Scottish public body – find a list of public bodies on gov.scot

People in these roles are expected to meet certain standards of behaviour, known as ‘a code of conduct’. You can complain about a behaviour that does not meet the code of conduct.

Before you complain

You should read the relevant Code of Conduct for the person you’re complaining about:

• Code of Conduct for MSPs
• Code of Conduct for councillors
• Code of Conduct for members of public bodies

What you can complain about

You can complain if you believe a councillor, MSP or board member has not followed the code of conduct for their role.

The Commissioner cannot investigate issues not covered in the code of conduct such as:

• what they do in their personal lives
• problems with public services – find out how to complain about public services

Find out what can and can’t be investigated on the Ethical Standards website.

For councillors and members of public bodies

The Standards Commission for Scotland have published a guide to help you understand if the Code of Conduct applies to the issue you’d like to complain about.

Find out more about what can assessed on the Ethical Standards website.

How to complain

You can make your complaint by:

• logging into the Ethical Standards Commissioner website
• completing a complaint form and posting it to the Commissioner

Address

Ethical Standards Commissioner
Thistle House
91 Haymarket Terrace
Edinburgh
EH12 5HE

After you submit a complaint

When you submit a complaint, the Commissioner will check if they can investigate it.

You’ll get a letter to say if they’re going to investigate your complaint and why.

The Commissioner will write to the person you’ve complained about or the public body they represent. If an investigation happens, they may need to interview witnesses.

The length of time it takes to complete the investigation depends on the seriousness of the complaint.

Find out more about how complaints are investigated on the Ethical Standards website.

Once a decision has been made

Once the Commissioner finalises their report, you’ll get a letter with their decision.

They’ll send a copy of the final report to the person you’ve complained about, the council or the public body and to the Standards Commission for Scotland.

The Standards Commission for Scotland will decide to either:

• ask for a further investigation
• hold a public hearing
• take no action.

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