Issue - meetings

Annual Standards Report

Meeting: 26/06/2019 - Governance & Audit Committee (Item 8)

8 Annual Standards Report pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To advise the Committee of activity within the Council’s Standards Framework from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.

Minutes:

Sanjay Prashar, Borough Solicitor, presented a summary of the Annual Standards Report. 

 

The report set out the current framework for the handling of complaints alleging a breach of the Code of Conduct for Members.

 

The data showed an increase in complaints received in 2018/19 from the 10 previous years; the figure being 9 complaints against a high of 7 complaints in 2016/17.  The majority of complaints received in 2018/19 were against Parish and Town Councillors, and the grounds for each complaint and outcome were set out in appendix B of the Report.

 

Following a consultation on Local Government Ethical Standards launched in January 2018 by the CSPL, the findings of the review were published in a report in January 2019.  Members were directed to the reports main recommendations for central government which were not expected to be made into legislation for some time.  The recommendations included the reintroduction of the power to suspend Councillors for a period of up to six months and also for Councillors to be given the right to appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman against such a sanction.

 

The report also included a list of best practice recommendations directed to local authorities, most of which were already adopted by the Council. Where there was some divergence, those areas would form the basis of a separate report later in the year following consideration by the Code of Conduct Working Group.

 

In response to discussion and questions from Members, Sanjay Prashar, Borough Solicitor advised the Committee that:

 

  • It was believed the Council had only one Independent Person, Louis Lee, who worked alongside the Monitoring Officer to consider investigative reports as a result of a complaint received against Members.  Sanjay said an appointment process had been undertaken and Louis was the only successful candidate.
  • The CSPL report would examine if Members were acting in capacity as a Councillor or acting in their personal capacity with reference to complaints made against them in all areas, including social media.
  • It was discussed whether consideration given to any divergence in the best practice recommendations by the Code of Conduct Working Group could be overridden by the Government review taking place.  Sanjay thought there was not likely to be any override and that it was important to consider which recommendations the Council adopted in terms of best practice.  David St John Jones volunteered himself as Independent Member to go through the best practice recommendations and confer with the Monitoring Officer as to whether any that were not already found in the Council’s Code of Conduct ought to be incorporated.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

1          The Standards outputs in 2018/19 as set out in appendix Bof the Annual Standards Report be noted.

 

2          The Best Practice recommendations set out in the report of the Committee for Standards in Public Life (CSPL) into ethical standards in appendices C and D and the proposal in paragraph 11 of the Annual Standards Report for these recommendations to be considered by the Monitoring Officer in consultation with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8


 

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