Public Services Ombudsman cleared of bias after tweets row

Ms McCullough and her team looked at 673 code of conduct cases that had been dismissed and found “all decision-making was based solely on evidence, facts and solid, well-articulated reasoning”.

“As such, there was no evidence of political bias,” it added.

The report did not cross-reference the cases with the political affiliation of the councillor involved.

It said this was because of the lack of evidence that any decisions were made on the basis of anything other than the facts.

Eleven discontinued cases investigated by Ms Cook were also reviewed and the report came to the same conclusion.

However, it recommended the PSOW should change its policies so councillors are told about complaints when they are received, rather than after they are assessed.

This would be in the “interests of fairness and transparency” and protect the PSOW from criticism when a councillor learns of a complaint from a third party or the media.

It also said the PSOW’s code of conduct “could be more comprehensive” in setting out the circumstances where social media activity by an employee amounts to misconduct.