Agenda item - Standards Regime - Monitoring Officers' Report

Agenda item

Standards Regime - Monitoring Officers' Report

Minutes:

The Head of Legal, Democratic and Property Services presented the Monitoring Officer’s report and in doing so highlighted that there had been one new complaint received since the last meeting, which had now been resolved as the matter did not result in a breach of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

 

In response to a Member request for an update on the nature of the resolved complaint, the Head of Legal, Democratic and Property Services undertook to provide the details at a future meeting of the Committee.

 

In addition, one previously reported complaint remained live and whilst investigation of the matter had now concluded, a conversation with the County Council was required to determine whether the complaint could be resolved locally or not.

 

As the Council would be holding elections in May 2023, Members were informed that if any additional training was required by Members they could approach Democratic Services or the Monitoring Officer with the view of adding it to the already established programme of training.

 

Following the presentation of the report, Members asked whether, following resolution, details of a member complaint could be released to the public. It was noted that all member complaints at a local level (i.e., those complaints that stayed internal to the authority) remained confidential, unless both the complainant and the defendant agreed for details to be released.

 

Members asked about complaint cases where an individual under investigation ceased to be a councillor (for example due to not being re-elected) and it was noted that such cases would no longer be assigned as much priority as those relating to existing elected members. Additionally, such cases would often be resolved by virtue of the individual no longer being an elected member.

 

Members queried what sanctions could be imposed on elected members whose behaviour attracted numerous complaints and was deemed to bring the authority into disrepute. It was explained that powers available to councils in this area were very limited, as the Localism Act 2011 did not confer any power to the relevant authority (or its standards committee) to impose sanctions for breach of its code. Consequently, councils could not impose substantive sanctions such as disqualification from office, a financial penalty, or withdrawal of monetary allowances. If the complaint could not be resolved locally, the Monitoring Officer could direct that the complaint be heard before a standards committee comprised of fellow elected members with findings subsequently reported at a Full Council meeting. The Head of Legal, Democratic and Property Services added that no further method of sanction was available towards councillors under investigation, and they could continue to attend meetings of the authority.

 

If the elected member was found to have breached the Authority’s Code of Conduct, the powers available to the authority included a formal letter of warning to the member and formal censure by motion of a committee to removal of the member from a committee (which did not legally prevent the councillor in question from attending) and adverse publicity.

 

The Head of Legal, Democratic and Property Services added that the Council’s code of conduct was designed primarily with the view of maintaining standards through a conciliatory approach and that there was a high reliance on the Monitoring Officer working in cooperation with political group leaders when finding resolutions to member complaints.

 

RESOLVED that the Monitoring Officer’s Report be noted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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