Agenda and minutes

The Chair reminded members of the need to declare any known interests in any matters to be considered at the meeting. No declarations of interest were made.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 27^th January 2014.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 27th January, 2014, be confirmed and signed.

Ms Claire Bouverie-Brine, a local resident, asked a question regarding the process used by the Council to deal with a request she had made for a member complaint to be re-opened. The Chair and the Monitoring Officer responded. In response to a request by Ms Bouverie-Brine, the chair agreed to confirm his response in writing on receipt of a note from Ms Bouverie-Brine setting out the detail of her question.

Ms Carole Bent, a local resident, asked a question regarding the process of determining the complaint referred to by Ms Bouverie-Brine. The Chair and the Monitoring Officer responded.

Ms Kareen Boyd, a local resident, asked a question regarding the timeframe for determining outstanding Code of Conduct complaints. The Chair agreed to provide a written response when he was able to but reminded Ms Boyd of the confidential nature of code of conduct complaints.

Ms Martha Parry, a local resident, also asked a question regarding the timeframe for determining outstanding Code of Conduct complaints and the timeframe for the determination of Code of Conduct complaints generally. The Chair responded to Ms Parry’s question.

The Monitoring Officer responded to a question from the public gallery regarding the availability of information relating to Standards Committee decisions in relation to Code of Conduct complaints.

Certain items are expected to include the consideration of exempt information and the Standards Committee is, therefore, recommended to resolve "That, in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded during the discussion of the matters referred to in the items listed below, on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in the respective paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information".

That, in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded during the discussion of the matters referred to in the items listed below on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the respective paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

            Item No. Paragraph No.       Minute No.

            7      1 and 2                                 29

Further to Minute 8, the Committee received Hoey Ainscough Associates Ltd’s  report of their independent review of the Council’s procedures for handling complaints that members may have breached the Council’s Code of Conduct.

Mr Paul Hoey presented the report to the meeting, providing some background to the new arrangements that came into effect from July 2012, in response to the provisions of the Localism Act 2011, and outlining the criteria for a successful standards process that had been used as the basis for the review. He summarised the reasons for undertaking the review at this time and the process used to carry out the review, including details of the various interested parties that were consulted as part of the process.

Mr Hoey commented that consultation with a broad base of interested parties had been invaluable to the successful outcome of the review and that, whilst all the groups had approached the issue from different perspectives, the following common concerns had been evident:

·        the occurrence of delays under the current arrangements

·        the lack of transparency and a failure to communicate what was happening, or had happened

·        the possibility of the process being used politically and therefore needing to be more independent from the Council.

Mr Hoey took the meeting through the phases of the Code of Conduct complaints process, placing these in the context of the common concerns identified by consultees (as outlined above), and provided some detail to the various recommendations that had formed the basis of the proposed revised arrangements for dealing with member code of conduct complaints (attached at Appendix 1 to the report) and which would support the proposed revised process.

M Hoey commented that all the parties consulted had shown a commitment to the local community and had recognised that a high standard of conduct by its elected representatives was important. He felt that the Council’s current arrangements were typical of those used by other councils, exhibiting some elements of good practice but with a need to make the process quicker, provide a greater reassurance that the process is as independent as it can be, and ensure that all the parties to a case understand process and are kept better informed of how cases are progressing. Mr Hoey was confident that if the report recommendations were adopted by the Council, the revised process would meet these objectives.

Following the presentation of the review report, and the Committee’s consideration of the Monitoring Officer’s initial comments on the report’s findings, the comments and observations of members and interested parties were sought (the various Issues raised by members and interested parties are summarised in Appendix 1 to the minutes).

            Resolved – (1) That Mr Paul Hoey and Ms Natalie Ainscough (Hoey Ainscough Associates Ltd) be congratulated on their production of a comprehensive and easily accessible review report and thanked for attending the meeting to present their findings and recommendations.

            (2) That the Committee broadly accepts the key recommendations of the report, as set out in Appendix B of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Democratic Services regarding the outcome of various ethical framework compliance matters, including the details of Whistleblowing cases received since the last Committee and the outcome of any completed investigations in relation to these, and the details of Code of Conduct Complaints received since the last meeting.

            Resolved – That the Ethical Framework Compliance report be noted.