Agenda item

The Council is asked to consider the recommended change to the Complaints Procedure (contained within Part 6 of the Council’s Constitution) put forward by the Standards Committee.

Council was aware that the Standards Committee, at its meeting held on 3 February 2021 (Minute 13 referred) had considered a related report of the Monitoring Officer and had reviewed the Council’s Complaints Procedure.

At that meeting of the Standards Committee the Monitoring Officer had explained that the Local Government Ombudsman had looked at this Council’s Complaints Procedure on a number of occasions when a complainant who had been dissatisfied with the outcome of a complaint had gone to the Ombudsman for a further review. In all instances the Ombudsman had stated that this Council’s procedures were robust and, if followed correctly, the Ombudsman would not look into the outcome of the complaint if the procedure had been correctly followed. Therefore, it was important that the Procedure was made as clear as possible to anyone using it.

The Monitoring Officer had further explained to the Standards Committee that through a recent referral to Essex Police, regarding an alleged Disclosable Pecuniary Interest offence under the Localism Act 2011, the Monitoring Officer had been requested to confirm that the Legal Jurisdiction Criteria Test had been evaluated and met prior to referring the complaint to the Police. The Monitoring Officer had been requested to provide assurance that the following had been applied prior to further Police involvement:

(a)   The alleged conduct took place after the commencement of Section 34 of the Localism Act 2011.

(b)   The Subject Member was a member of the Council at the time of the alleged conduct.

(c)   The Subject Member was acting in an official capacity as a Councillor at the time of the alleged conduct.

(d)   The Subject Member was not acting as a member of another authority at the time of the alleged conduct.

(e)   If the facts are capable of establishment as a matter of evidence, the alleged conduct could be capable of a breach of the Code of Conduct.

(f)    That the complaint is not about dissatisfaction with the Council’s decisions, policies and priorities.

In the event that the above assurances could be made, the Police would consider commencing a criminal investigation, if crucially part (e) could be established regarding actual evidence, which the Monitoring Officer might be asked to provide.

The aforementioned test and evaluation had been undertaken implicitly by the Monitoring Officer however, it was not expressly referred to within the Complaints Procedure. Consequently, the Monitoring Officer had recommended to the Standards Committee that paragraph 4.5 of the Complaints Procedure be amended to state:

“If your complaint identifies criminal conduct or breach of other regulation by any person, the Monitoring Officer has the power and obligation to notify or refer to the Police or other regulatory agencies, subject to the necessary Legal Jurisdiction Criteria Test being applied”.

No other changes to the Complaints Procedure had been recommended by the Monitoring Officer at that time.

Consequently, the Standards Committee had decided to recommend to full Council that paragraph 4.5 of the Complaints Procedure contained within Part 6 of the Constitution be amended to include the proposed additional text.

Having considered the recommendation of the Standards Committee:-

It was moved by Councillor Land, seconded by Councillor Turner and:-

RESOLVED that paragraph 4.5 of the Complaints Procedure contained within Part 6 of the Constitution be amended to include the additional text: “subject to the necessary Legal Jurisdiction Criteria Test being applied.”