Agenda item

(1)    The Monitoring Officer will give a quarterly update on Complaints.      

(2)    The Committee’s Work Programme for 2019/2020

The Committee is invited to give consideration to its work programme for the 2019/2020 Municipal Year.

(3)    “The Local Government Ethical Standards Report dated January 2019 following a review by the Committee in Standards in Public Life”

The Committee will discuss the Report with a view to noting its recommendations.

(1)       Quarterly Complaints Update

The Monitoring Officer circulated to the Committee the quarterly schedule, which gave an update on existing cases together with general details of new cases, without providing any names, and went through them with the Committee.

(2)       General Notes - Summary of Complaints in the period April 2018 to March 2019

The Monitoring Officer informed the Committee that a total of 11 complaints had been received during 2018/19 of which five had related to District Councillors and six had related to Town and Parish Councillors. Six complaints had originated from members of the public and five complaints had originated from Councillors.

The Monitoring Officer had decided that five of the complaints merited no further action and that three related to Councillors acting in a private capacity and could not be taken forward. Of the remaining three complaints, two were referred for external investigation and one complaint was pending.

The Monitoring Officer also reported that five complaints had involved the same Councillor and that no Hearings had been held during 2018/19.

(3)       Requests for Dispensations

No requests for dispensations had been received since the last meeting of the Committee.

(4)       “The Local Government Ethical Standards Report dated January 2019 following a review by the Committee on Standards in Public Life”

The Committee had before it the published report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) following its review of Ethical Standards in Local Government.

The Monitoring Officer highlighted the salient points contained in the Chairman of the CSPL’s covering letter to the Prime Minister, the Executive Summary of the report, the list of recommendations made by the CSPL and its list of best practice recommendations directed at local authorities.

Having considered and discussed the contents of the report:-

It was moved by Councillor Bray, seconded by Councillor Scott and –

RESOLVED that –

(a)       the outcome of the review of Ethical Standards in Local Government by the CSPL be noted;

(b)       an update on the progress being made on the implementation of the CSPL’s recommendations, together with the further information requested by Members in respect of recommendation 11 and the list of best practice be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee;

(c)       the Monitoring Officer investigate ways in which the Independent Persons could be kept up-to-date with regard to the cases deemed to require “No Further Action”; and

(d)       with regards to the quarterly complaints update, the Monitoring Officer be requested to give an indication whether multiple complaints had been submitted by an individual member of the public.

(5)       The Committee’s Work Programme for 2019/2020

The Committee gave consideration to its work programme for the 2019/2020 Municipal Year.

Members had before them a suggested work programme which had been submitted by the Monitoring Officer.

It was moved by Councillor Scott, seconded by Councillor Bray and –

RESOLVED that the annual Work Programme for 2019/2020, as set out below, be approved –

31 July 2019 (provisional date)

• Update on Member Induction – Code of Conduct Training

• Update of the ongoing progress of the implementation of the Review by Committee on Standards in Public Life/further discussion on list of Best Practice

• Quarterly Complaints update by Monitoring Officer

2 October 2019 (provisional date)

• Review of the Complaints Procedure

• Case review and guidance update for the Committee on decisions and actions taken nationally

• Quarterly Complaints update by Monitoring Officer

29 January 2020 (provisional date)

·         Update on Mandatory Training

• Quarterly Complaints update by Monitoring Officer

8 April 2020 (provisional date)

• Annual Report on declarations of interest (meetings, gifts and hospitality)

• Work Programme 2020/2021

• Quarterly Complaints update by Monitoring Officer

The Committee was aware that individual matters might be referred to the above meetings by the Monitoring Officer in accordance with the Committee’s Terms of Reference as necessary, for example an appeal against a dispensation decision or a code of conduct hearing.