Agenda item

To update the Standards Committee, as part of its agreed work programme, on the current position of mandatory training for Members (and named substitute members) of the Council’s Audit, Licensing & Registration, Planning and Standards Committees.

There was submitted a report (A.1) by the Monitoring Officer which sought to update the Committee, as part of its agreed work programme, on the current position of mandatory training for Members and named substitute Members of the Council’s Audit, Licensing & Registration, Planning and Standards Committees.

The report reiterated the Council’s decision and constitutional requirement to make relevant training mandatory for Members, and their named substitutes, in respect of a number of the Council’s Committees and also provided details of training undertaken and attendance to date.

Appendix A to the report provided details of those Members who had undertaken 1-2-1 Code of Conduct sessions with the Monitoring Officer, either following a recommendation from the Standards Committee, or following election to the Council.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed that due to the type of matters considered by the Standards Committee, each topic involved consideration of the relevant factors and in doing so the Committee received a range of information to take into account.  When hearings were required to determine the outcome of Members’ Code of Conduct complaints a briefing was held with the members of the Committee beforehand.

Appendix B to the report provided details of the Planning Committee Mandatory Training for 2017/18.  The Committee noted that the usual range of subjects had not been delivered, with concentration on determining applications and the Local Plan, as both of those sessions were essential to understanding the various considerations to be taken into account by the Planning Committee when making decisions on applications.   

Appendix C to the report detailed the training record for the Licensing and Registration Committee.  This year only one session had been delivered but it had covered a range of topics. 

Appendix D to the report was the training record for the Audit Committee.

The Committee was reminded that to ensure that the training was successful and the application of the principles was understood by Members, each session tended to have a workshop style question and answer session at the end. This style had been adopted by the Licensing and Registration and Planning Committees’ training sessions and had worked well for both Members and officers and had encouraged debate.

It was reported that recently, as part of the committee structure review, members of the Electoral Review Working Group had raised the requirements to attend mandatory training and the consequences for failing to do so.  Whilst the Constitution required a Member to undertake mandatory training if they were a member of certain committees, the rules were silent on the consequences of failing to do so.  It was acknowledged that in the majority of cases, if a Member had not undertaken mandatory training they would not take part in certain decision making.  However, without the relevant Group Leader’s co-operation this would be difficult to enforce if a Member failed to observe the rules. 

The Electoral Review Working Group had therefore requested that the Monitoring Officer undertake a review of the constitutional requirements relating to attending mandatory training linked to committee membership.  Due to falling within its terms of reference, the Monitoring Officer would consult the Standards Committee on any new proposals. 

Following discussion by the Committee, it was moved by Councillor Whitmore, seconded by Councillor Nicholls and -

RESOLVED that the Standards Committee:

(a)       notes the contents of the report and its Appendices;

(b)       encourages Members of the Planning, Licensing and Registration and Audit Committees to attend organised mandatory training to comply with the constitutional requirement;

(c)       welcomes a review of the constitutional requirements relating to attending mandatory training linked to committee membership and requests that the Committee is consulted on any new proposals. Further that any such review should also examine the relationships/implications between Members’ attendance at meetings and Members’ allowances; and

(d)       that, in future, the Independent Persons be invited to attend Member training sessions on the Code of Conduct.

After further discussion it was moved by Councillor Bray, seconded by Councillor Steady and –

RESOLVED (e) that, the Committee at its first meeting after the District Council Elections in May 2019, receive details pertaining to the attendance of Members at the training sessions on the Members’ Code of Conduct.