For the Standards Committee to determine whether to respond to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (“the government’s”) consultation on the Standards and Conduct framework, on behalf of Tendring District Council.

Members were told that the Government had launched a consultation regarding the application of standards and conduct in local authorities. The consultation had opened on 18 December 2024 and ran for 10 weeks, closing on 26 February 2025. It stated: “This consultation seeks views on introducing a mandatory minimum code of conduct for local authorities in England, and measures to strengthen the standards and conduct regime in England to ensure consistency of approach amongst councils’ investigation of serious breaches of their member codes of conduct, including the introduction of the power of suspension.”

Appendix A of the Officer report was a set of proposed answers to the specific questions which had been posed, together with supporting text where appropriate.

Members were also made aware that back in 2019, there had been a national review of the standards framework, and a number of recommendations had come out. Some of the recommendations required changes to legislation, especially in relation to sanctions. The previous Government had responded to that review and had said that they had no intention of amending the legislation at that current time, but that a model code had been produced by the Local Government Association (LGA) and Tendring District Council had adopted that model code.

The Committee was informed that the consultation sought views on introducing measures to strengthen the standards and conduct regime in England and ensure consistency of approach amongst councils’ investigation of serious breaches of their Members’ codes of conduct, including the introduction of the power of suspension.

Specific proposals being consulted upon for legislative change included:

• the introduction of a mandatory minimum code of conduct for local authorities in England
• a requirement that all principal authorities convened formal standards committees to make decisions on code of conduct breaches, and publish the outcomes of all formal investigations
• the introduction of the power for all local authorities (including combined authorities) to suspend councillors or mayors found in serious breach of their code of conduct and, as appropriate, interim suspension for the most serious and complex cases that might involve police investigations
• a new category of disqualification for gross misconduct and those subject to a sanction of suspension more than once in a 5-year period
• a role for a national body to deal with appeals.

Officers told Members that in addition, the consultation sought views on how to empower victims affected by councillor misconduct to come forward and what additional support would be appropriate to consider.

The consultation suggested that the Government was in favour of introducing those sanctions, but the consultation was seeking input from the sector and any other interested parties.

Members were updated on an amendment to the wording of the response to Question 19 in Appendix A of the Officer report which now stated: “Although we feel that it should remain with the Standards Committee but in the event that the national consultation supports suspension being referred to an independent body, it is unclear how a referral to an independent body would work in practice, could create a delay and increase Council resources to manage the process?”

Officers also updated Members on the figures relating to Question 13a in Appendix A of the Officer report which were for 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 up until the present time, those were as follows:

Complaints received from Elected Members: 10

Complaints received from Co-opted Members: 5

Complaints received from the public: 22

Complaints received from Officers: 0

Officers told Members that some of the complaints received from the public were from ex co-opted members.

It was moved by Councillor J Henderson, seconded by Councillor Alexander and unanimously:-

RESOLVED that the Standards Committee:-

(a)   agrees a formal response should be provided on behalf of Tendring District Council to the Government’s consultation exercise,

(b)   agrees to submit the proposed response, as set out in Appendix A and as amended through the debate at the meeting; and

(c)   agrees that the power of suspension should be returned to Local Authorities to re-enforce the importance of upholding breaches of the Code of Conduct but it should not be used for political purposes and with the ability for an appeal.