To enable the committee to be assured that high standards of conduct continue to be promoted and maintained.  To provide an overview of how the arrangements for dealing with complaints are working together with views from the latest standards panel sampling review.

The Director of Governance and Law / Monitoring Officer introduced the report. The principal points were raised:

·            A correction was identified to paragraph 8 of the ‘Key considerations’ section, it was highlighted that independent persons had offered support to councillors who had received complaints against them during the year 2022/23. It was noted that going forward the Independent Persons would be contacted before bringing a report to the committee to ensure that accurate reporting was made; it was important for councillors to be assured that this support was available to them.

·            It was highlighted there had been disruption with the timeliness of reporting to the committee. This was due to the number of complaints being received but largely due to turnover of new staff and the disruption this created with the handing over of processes. Further strengthening was being implemented within the team with the recruitment of a permanent Governance Lawyer and the Deputy Monitoring Officer would be leading on and assisting with investigations.

·            It was confirmed that Cornwall Council were no longer assisting with investigations of complaints which was felt to have created confusion and had led to delays.

·            A dedicated Code of Conduct inbox had been created, meaning that delays should not be incurred in complaints due to being double or triple handled.

·            The standards panel had identified improvements and made recommendations; some of which have been implemented during the review year. Mainly on operational matters around improving and giving full reasons for decisions and sign posting complainants to where else they could go if it did not fall under the members code of conduct.

In response to committee questions, it was noted:

1.          It is a duty of the Monitoring Officer under legislation, rather than the role of Herefordshire Council, to investigate a complaint about a parish councillor, if it meets the criteria. Law dictates that the views of an independent person (IP) were sought. If a parish councillor was found to be in breach of the code, it would be directed back to the parish council to deal with independently.

2.          There was no specific time limit in which to deal with code of conduct complaints but ideally they would be dealt with as efficiently as possible for the complainant and the relevant councillor; times would vary depending on the complexity of the complaint, the number of witnesses involved and the timeliness of replies.  It was noted that reporting on the average elapsed time of cases and percentages of councillors where they had complied with sanctions would be included in future reports to the committee. An action was recorded to provide specific details on the 12 cases still open from 2020/21, as recorded in the table at paragraph 19 of the report.

3.          Each case was dealt with on a particular set of facts and the council must remain neutral and not be seen to be assisting a complainant if their complaint did not fall under the members’ code of conduct, but there could be circumstances where other routes could be suggested, such as contacting the district auditor or the local clerk.

Resolved

That:

a)         the annual report on code of conduct complaints be noted; and

b)         reporting on the average elapsed time of cases and percentages of councillors where they had complied with sanctions be included in future reports to the committee. 

Action(s)

2023/24-007    The Monitoring Officer to provide specific details on the 12 cases still open from 2020/21, as recorded in the table at paragraph 19 of the report.

Update provided:

The spreadsheet is a snapshot in time at year end, and so some of the complaints might have only been open for days or weeks at this point – for instance, 6 cases were received in the period Jan-Mar 21 and I would not expect these to have been completed by year end.  We cannot see from our background data the reasons why 12 cases were open at year end, but during 2020/21 the Council was still operating an appeals process, and this led to complaints being outstanding for significantly longer as it allowed subject members and complainants to appeal decisions to a Standards Panel.  Complaints do not expire due to time, and any case open at year end would simply continue until it is finalised.

Going forward it will probably be more helpful if I reported on complaints closed within the year, because for example a number of complaints could come in on the 31 March.