157.Section 69 provides that a Local Commissioner in Wales may investigate written allegations of breaches of the code of conduct of a relevant authority by members or former members of the authority, and other cases arising from such investigations in which he considers that a member or former member has failed to comply with the authority’s code of conduct.
158.There are four possible outcomes of these investigations:
	that there is no evidence of a failure to comply with a code of conduct; or
	that there is no need to take action on the matters investigated; or
	that the matter should be referred back to the monitoring officer of the relevant authority to deal with; or
	that the matters which are the subject of the investigation should be referred to the president of the Adjudication Panel for Wales for adjudication by a case tribunal.
159.Where a person is no longer a member of the relevant authority concerned but is a member of another relevant authority in Wales, the Local Commissioner has the discretion to decide which of the authority’s monitoring officers to refer the matters to.
160.Section 70 provides the NAW with an enabling power to make orders so as to provide the Local Commissioner with the powers of investigation available to the ethical standards officers in England. This section also permits the Local Commissioner to terminate an investigation and to refer matters to the monitoring officer of the member’s present or former authority.
Introduction Commentary on sections Section 69 and 70: Investigations