Agenda and minutes
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Contact: Debbie Parker-Jones
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Welcome of new Independent Member [To welcome to the Committee Ms. Debbie Roberts who, on 12th November 2008, was appointed by the Council to serve as an Independent Member on the Standards Committee for a four-year term of office.] Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Ms. D. Roberts, new Independent Member, to the Committee. Ms. Roberts had, on 12th November 2008, been appointed by the Council to serve as an Independent Member on the Committee for a four-year term of office. |
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Apologies for absence Minutes: No apologies for absence were received from any members of the Committee.
An apology was received from Mr. S. Malek, non-voting Deputy Parish Councils' Representative on the Committee and Committee observer. |
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Declarations of Interest Minutes: No declarations of interest were received. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the meetings of the Standards Committee held on 26th September 2008 and 16th October 2008 were submitted.
RESOLVED that the minutes be approved as correct records. |
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Council Decisions on Standards Committee Matters [To inform the Committee of the decisions made by the Council in relation to: (a) the appointment of an Independent Member to the Committee; (b) the Council's Confidential Reporting Code; and (c) the Department of Communities and Local Government Consultation Paper entitled "Communities in Control: Real people, real power - Codes of Conduct for local authority members and employees".] Minutes: A report advising of the decisions made by the Council in relation to: the appointment of an Independent Member to the Standards Committee; the Council's Confidential Reporting Code; and the Department of Communities and Local Government Consultation Paper entitled "Communities in Control: Real people, real power - Codes of Conduct for local authority members and employees" was submitted.
RESOLVED that the report be noted. |
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Monitoring Officer's Report [To receive a report from the Monitoring Officer on matters of relevance to the Committee, and to include the following: (a) Member Investigations and Associated Matters; (b) Complaints for Local Assessment; (c) Member Training; (d) Issues Arising from Standards Committee Training; (e) Training - Parish Councils; (f) Terms of Office of Parish Councils' Representatives on the Standards Committee; (g) Cardiff University Case Study; and (h) West Mercia Forum of Independent Members.]
Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee noted the report of the Monitoring Officer contained in the agenda papers and the following issues were raised:
Member Investigations and Associated Matters
Officers advised that a draft report detailing the Investigating Officer's findings in relation to two linked complaints against a district councillor had been received from the Standards Board for England ("SBE"). The SBE had sent a copy of the report to the subject Member, complainant and Monitoring Officer, all of whom had until 22nd December 2008 by which to submit comments on this. Once the final report had been received a date would be set for the Committee to consider the findings.
Member Training
It was reported that the Cabinet Procedure Rules training which had been due to take place the previous evening had had to be postponed and that this would now take place at a later date. Officers would also shortly be making the necessary arrangements for the Chairmanship Skills training for the Standards Committee's Independent Members to take place, which was to be conduced by the Monitoring Officer early in the New Year.
Issues Arising from Standards Committee training
(i) SBE Guide to the Code of Conduct
Emphasis was being placed by officers on the importance of Members completing and keeping up to date their Register of Interests forms, with workshop style sessions on this having also taken place with the parish councils.
(ii) Public awareness of the role of the Standards Committee
Officers advised that a new local performance indicator would be coming into effect in the Spring of 2009 which would look at the percentage of people who were aware of the elected Member complaints system. As such, further emphasis would be placed on this and the role of the Committee in the New Year.
It was the majority view that the name of the Committee did not need to change, but that it was important to raise public awareness of the role of the Committee and to ensure that any associated publicity reinforce the fact that the Committee was responsible for the conduct of both parish and district councillors.
(iii) Chairing of Standards Sub-Committees
The Committee felt that whilst it would be preferable to have separate chairmen in place for meetings of an Assessment Sub-Committee and Final Determination Sub-Committee which were looking into the same matter, should the logistics of this prove to be difficult then the same chairman could chair both meetings as the chairman of the Assessment Sub-Committee should not, in any way, have compromised themselves given the nature of the initial assessment process.
(iv) Redditch Borough Council's Standards Committee
It was noted at the Standards training on 3rd November 2008 that Redditch Borough Council's Standards Committee had not, at that stage, dealt with any complaints against councillors under local assessment. In view of this, together with changes which had been brought about by the Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008 which meant that an independent member of one standards committee could also sit ... view the full minutes text for item 46. |
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Parish Councils' Representatives' Report [To receive an oral update from the Parish Councils' Representatives on any matters of relevance to the Committee.] Minutes: Mr. Cypher advised the Committee of issues which he had raised at the last meeting of the Bromsgrove Area Committee of the Worcestershire CALC, which included:
RESOLVED that the position be noted. |
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Review of Protocol on Relations Between Members [To consider how to conduct the review of the Protocol on Relations between Members.] Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered a report on how best to conduct a review of the Council's local Protocol on Relations between Members ("the Protocol").
There was felt to be insufficient detail contained in the report for the Committee to decide how best to undertake such a review and it was requested that a further report on this be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee. In particular, information as to the general types of issues which had arisen between Members and for which the Protocol had recently been relied upon was sought. The Committee also queried whether the Protocol had been superseded by the new Code of Conduct for Members and it was requested that views on this be sought from both the political Group Leaders and officers and that any feedback be detailed in the report.
RESOLVED that a further report on the review of the Protocol, in the terms outlined in the preamble above, be submitted to the next meeting of the Standards Committee. |
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Review of Member-Officer Protocol [To consider how best to review the Member-Officer Protocol.] Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered a report on how best to conduct a review of the Council's Member-Officer Protocol ("the Protocol").
There was felt to be insufficient detail contained in the report for the Committee to decide how best to undertake such a review and it was requested that a further report on this be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee. In particular, it was noted that there was no reference in the Protocol to the Members' Code of Conduct and that there was employment legislation which might impact on this. It was requested that views on these points be sought from both the political Group Leaders and officers and that any feedback be detailed in the report. It was further requested that the report set out the position in relation to any impact on the Protocol of the consultation which was currently being undertaken by the Department of Communities and Local Government on a proposed new Code of Conduct for local government employees.
RESOLVED that a further report on the review of the Protocol, in the terms outlined in the preamble above, be submitted to the next meeting of the Standards Committee. |
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[To consider the Work Programme for the Committee.] Minutes: Consideration was given to the Committee's Work Programme.
RESOLVED that the Work Programme be approved. |