To receive an update from the Monitoring Officer on matters of relevance to the Committee, and to include the following:
(a) Member Investigations/associated matters;
(b) Complaints for Local Assessment; and
(c) Member Training.
Minutes:
Member Investigations/associated matters
In relation to Member investigations under the old regime, Members were advised that there was:
(i) the Investigating Officer's report before them that evening;
(ii) an investigation being conducted by the Standards Board for England into allegations that a district councillor may have breached the Code of Conduct - for which a provisional finding had been reached and the final decision of which was expected within the next few weeks; and
(iii) a further Investigating Officer's report which had found that there had been a breach of the Code and for which a final determination hearing would be taking place on 26th September 2008.
Regarding Member investigations under the new (local assessment) regime, it was reported that 5 complaints had been referred to the Standards Board for investigation, all of which had been accepted by the Standards Board. It was noted that the Standards Board's performance indicator for completion of investigations was 90% within six months of acceptance of a referral.
Complaints for Local Assessment
Officers provided statistical data on complaints received for local assessment since the introduction of the new regime on 8th May 2008. It was noted that a total of 9 complaints had so far been received, all of which had been assessed. In addition to the 5 cases which had been referred to, and accepted by, the Standards Board for investigation, 3 cases had resulted in no further action being taken and in 1 case the matter had been referred for other action, which the Subject Member had subsequently complied with.
Member Training
It was agreed/noted that:
(i) standards committee training, to be conducted by Beth Evans of Bevan Brittan Solicitors, would take place on Monday, 3rd November 2008, an invitation to which would be extended to all Members in the event of their wishing to act as substitutes on the Committee. The training would include two identical sessions, one to be run from 2pm to 5pm and the other from 6pm to 9pm;
(ii) any identified gaps in standards committee training which needed to be addressed prior to 3rd November would be met by one-to-one training sessions with officers;
(iii) Mr. Cypher would shortly be meeting with Mr. Malek, the new Deputy Parish Council's Representative, to run through the role of the Parish Councils' Representatives on the Standards Committee;
(iv) Chairmanship training for Independent Members of the Committee would take place in early November 2008, following the appointment of Mr. Allard's replacement; and
(v) officers had provided training on the Code of Conduct and Members' Register of Interests forms for Hunnington and Finstall Parish Councils, which had proven to be successful. Officers would also be attending the next Parish Council Forum in September and it was further noted that the training programme for parish councils was due to be considered by the Committee at its meeting in October.
Publicity of the new regime
In view of the responsibility on the Authority to ensure that the complaints process was duly publicized, officers advised that an article on the new regime would appear in the November issue of Together Bromsgrove, as a previous request for this to be included in the summer edition had unfortunately been overlooked. There would also be a press release to accompany the article for the Independent Member vacancy, which as well as detailing the role of an Independent Member, would advise as to how local assessment tied in with this and how complaints could be made against councillors. The complaints form on the website was also due to be looked at to ensure this was as user friendly as possible.
RESOLVED that the updates provided be noted.