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 their membership on those committees which provided regulatory type functions. The report also detailed training undertaken and attendance to date.

Appendix A to the report provided details of those Members who had attended the new Code of Conduct training in May 2018.  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 would be held with the Committee beforehand, though no hearings had been undertaken in 2018/19.

Appendix B to the report provided details of the Planning Committee Mandatory Training for 2018/19.  The Committee noted that a range of subjects had been delivered, with concentration on determining applications, the National Planning Policy Framework and Appeals as 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. As usual only one session had been delivered (in November 2018) but it had covered a range of topics. 

In respect of the Audit Committee the Committee was informed that there had been no formal committee-wide training in 2018/19. However, the Head of Finance, Revenues and Benefits & Section 151 Officer had undertaken general Audit Committee induction training for new members of the Committee on a one-on-one basis.

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.

Members of the Committee indicated that they would like to see, as part of the post-election Members’ Induction arrangements, a repeat of the previous training on overview and scrutiny matters provided by the Centre for Public Scrutiny as Members had found it to be very useful and informative.

Following discussion by the Committee, it was moved by Councillor Scott, seconded by Councillor Heaney and -

RESOLVED that the Standards Committee:

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

(b)       continues to encourage Members of the Planning, Licensing and Registration and Audit Committees to attend organised mandatory training events in order to comply with the requirements of the Council’s Constitution.