Sixteen formal complaints were levelled against county councillors in 2024/25, but none were upheld.

The number of complaints is included in a report to be considered at a meeting of the county council's standards committee on Monday (December 8).

Twelve of the complaints – made between October 1 last year (2024) and September 30 this year – were deemed not to fall within the jurisdiction of the county council.

That is to say that the alleged act was not committed while the individual was acting in their capacity as a county councillor.

And in the remaining four instances, according to the report, no further action was warranted.

Details of the complaints – and the names of the councillors involved – have not been published.

And a private document summarising the complaints received has only been made available to councillors privately, in so-called "Part II" documents.

In advance of the meeting, a spokesperson for the county council confirmed that information was only made public if a councillor was found to have breached the council's members' code of conduct.

"When complaints are made against a councillor, the name of the individual and the complaint are not made public while under investigation," said the county council spokesperson.

"This allows for due process and investigation while also removing the potential for the complaints process to be misused.

"If, after investigation, it is found that a councillor's conduct or behaviours breached the Members' Code of Conduct, information is made public."

Nevertheless, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has made a request for the details under the Freedom of Information Act.

When a complaint is made against an individual county councillor in Hertfordshire, it is initially submitted to the council's monitoring officer.

The monitoring officer must then determine whether the complaint falls within the jurisdiction of the county council's code of conduct.

And that entails a consideration of whether the alleged act occurred when the individual was acting in their capacity as a county councillor.

In the next stage of the process, the complaint is subject to an initial assessment by the monitoring officer and one of the council's "independent persons".

And that initial assessment will determine whether or not the complaint warrants referral for investigation, whether it may be suitable for resolution by apology, mediation or training or whether it requires referral to the council's standards committee.

According to the report, where a finding is made by the standards committee, the committee's decision will be published on the county council's website.