STANDARDS COMMITTEE
22 JANUARY
2008
Present:
Mr N Briers (Independent non-Council Member);
Chair
Councillors P A Hallett and J Hammond
Independent non-Council
Member:
Mr J Ross
Deputy Parish
Representative:
Mr P Jackson
Officers in attendance:
Mr C
Henshall Borough
Solicitor
Miss D Moulson
Democratic Services Officer
Apologies: Councillor D
J Cannon
21. DECLARATIONS OF
INTEREST
No Member made any declaration of interest in
respect of any item of business on the agenda.
22. RECORD OF
MEETING
AGREED: That the record of the meeting held on 9th
November 2007 be approved as correct.
23. CONSULTATION ON
ORDERS AND REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE CONDUCT OF LOCAL AUTHORITY
MEMBERS IN ENGLAND
Part 10 of the Local Government and Public
Involvement in Health Act 2007 provided for a revised ethical
conduct regime for local government based on the principle of
proportionate decision making in the promotion of ethical
standards.
Prior to the relevant section of the Act
coming into force in spring 2008, the Department for Communities
and Local Government had published a consultation document entitled
“Orders and Regulations Relating to the Conduct of Local Authority
Members in England” which sought the views of Councils on a number
of issues relating to Part 10 of the Act. A copy of the
consultation paper was appended to the
agenda.
Sixteen questions had been set out in the
document on which authorities were invited to comment and the
Committee considered question 1 in some detail.
Under the 2007 Act, Standards Committees would
take on responsibility for making initial assessments into
misconduct allegations, a role currently carried out by the
Standards Board for England. In addition, the Committees
would have the authority to review a decision to take no
action. To ensure fairness for all parties, members who had
taken part at the initial assessment stage would be prohibited from
participating in a review of a decision but would not be excluded
from attending a hearing on the matter. Likewise, members who had
considered an allegation would not be permitted to be involved in a
review of the same decision should the Committee decide to take no
action.
The Standards Board considered that a clear
operational structure would be required for all Standards
Committees and it was proposed that this should take the form of a
number of sub-committees; appointed to exercise the different
functions. Whilst Members considered that this could be a
workable solution, concern was raised that the current level of
membership of the Committee would not be sufficient to allow an
arrangement of this kind to be implemented and additional
appointments may need to be considered. This would ensure that
there was a sufficient pool of individuals on which the Committee
could call, in turn providing an element of flexibility for those
occasions where members were unavailable or had been “conflicted
out” due to a personal and prejudicial interest.
RECOMMENDATION TO COUNCIL:
That, to enable the Standards Committee to
discharge its functions as set out in the Part 10 of the Local
Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007; membership of
the Committee be increased from 9 to 12 as follows: 6 elected
members, 4 Independent non-Council members, 2 parish
representatives; with the post of deputy parish representative
being retained.
The Committee briefly considered the remaining
questions in the document, giving their general support for the
proposals. Given the relatively short response time, the
Committee –
AGREED: That the Borough Solicitor, in his
capacity as Deputy Monitoring Officer, be given authority to
respond to the document on the Committee’s behalf, based on
comments made at the meeting.
24. LOCAL FILTER FOR
CODE OF CONDUCT COMPLAINTS
In Bulletin 36 issued in December 2007, the
Standards Board for England had published a checklist for local
authorities prior to implementation of the new regulations.
In the article, a number of best practice recommendations had been
set out, relating to the following matters, which the Committee
noted:
·
Local Assessment Criteria
·
Role of Monitoring Officer in the New Framework
·
Completing Existing Investigations
·
Local Assessments and the Corporate Complaints Process
·
Future Monitoring of Local Arrangements by the Standards Board
·
Local Assessment Guidance
The issue of training for the Committee had
been raised at the previous meeting but deferred pending receipt of
guidance from the Standards Board and the outcome of a meeting of
the Cheshire Monitoring Officers Group. The Borough Solicitor
reported that, to date i) no guidance had been received from the
Standards Board on the issues listed above; and ii) the Monitoring
Officers Group had not proposed to deliver any training on the
matter to its members until later in the year.
The Committee considered that it was not
advisable to delay training and stated its intention to hold a
session for its members only. Whilst
external facilitators were preferred, the Committee was
mindful of the potential cost and it was suggested that the
Standards Board be approached for advice.
The Chairman proposed that the next meeting of
the Committee scheduled for 4 March 2008, should be given over
to training, which was supported by Members.
25. NOTIFICATION OF
COMPLAINTS
The Borough Solicitor gave notice to the
Committee of two complaints recently considered by the
Standards Board for England which had been referred back to
the Borough Council for investigation.
26. DATE OF NEXT
MEETING
4 March 2008
……………………. Chair