Section 5 of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 defines a ‘member of the public’. It says that we can only investigate complaints that are from a member of the public who claims to have suffered injustice or hardship because of maladministration or service failure by a relevant public authority. We took legal advice on this not long after the Act came into being, and were advised that a community council is not a ‘member of the public’ under the terms of the Act. More recently a Committee of the Scottish Parliament looked at the Act, and confirmed that a community council cannot complain directly to us.