To approve a revised code of conduct on the recommendation of the audit and governance committee.

Council considered a report by the chairperson of the audit and governance committee to approve a revised code of conduct on the recommendation of the audit and governance committee. The chairperson of the audit and governance committee introduced the report and proposed the recommendations in the report.

Councillor Christy Bolderson, as the vice chairperson of the audit and governance committee, seconded the recommendations in the report.

Council debated the report and the following action was raised during the debate:

·       The solicitor to the council agreed to review the use of gender specific pronouns in the code of conduct from an equalities perspective.

The recommendations in the report were put to the vote and were carried.

RESOLVED – That:

a)             The Local Government Association (LGA) model code of conduct, as amended by local arrangements as set out at Appendix 3, is approved for adoption by Herefordshire Council at the annual Council meeting on 20 May 2022; and

b)             The LGA model arrangements for dealing with code of conduct complaints is adopted and applied to new complaints received after 20 May 2022

To recommend to Council a revised code of conduct.

The Chairperson noted that the Local Government Association (LGA) had issued the Model Councillor Code of Conduct and it was recommended that the code be adopted as amended to take account of local amendments, as set out at Appendix 3; the principal differences between the council’s existing code of conduct and the model code were set out at Appendix 4, this had been published in supplement 2 to the agenda.  It was also noted that town and parish councils may choose to adopt the principal authority’s code, to adopt the LGA model code, or make their own code.

The Chairperson reported that Councillor Liz Harvey had written to committee members before the meeting with detailed reasons to consider suggested amendments to the Guidance on Member Model Code of Conduct Complaints Handling, Appendix 2.

In response to questions from committee members, the Interim Head of Legal Services explained:

i.             the current process in relation to complaints and appeals;

ii.            the reasons why the LGA was recommending that no appeals should be heard as part of the internal process for determining code of conduct complaints;

iii.          that it was not proposed that the council should have a pre-assessment committee and the existing initial assessment stage, involving officers and independent persons, would be retained;

iv.          where matters could not be resolved by the Monitoring Officer, the arrangements for formal investigations and for referring matters to the Standards Panel;

v.           that the independent persons were split into two teams, with one team looking at the initial assessment and another which could be accessed by the subject member, but there could be an addendum to specify that the local arrangements would involve at least two independent persons;

vi.          the current lack of effective sanctions that could be imposed by monitoring officers;

vii.         the growing number of complaints about parish councils and the resource implications for the principal authority;

viii.       the process in Herefordshire had been shared with the Committee for Standards in Public Life and with the LGA; and

ix.          parish councils were encouraged to invite the principal authority to provide training on code of conduct issues and complaints.

The Chairperson, referring to the correspondence from Councillor Harvey, read out the suggested amendments to the section on Sanctions in the Guidance on Member Model Code of Conduct Complaints Handling; this is reflected in resolution b) ii) below.  The Interim Head of Legal Services detailed the reasons for the wording and confirmed that there was no impediment to Herefordshire Council adopting the guidance with local amendments, adding that it could not require parish councils to accept it.  The Chairperson noted the ongoing discussions between the government and the LGA, and the Interim Head of Legal Services summarised the recent responses of government to LGA recommendations.

In response to a comment from a committee member, the Chairperson drew attention to the local amendment identified in Appendix 4 to retain ‘any body … is not open to the public without formal membership’ in the ‘Other Registerable Interest –  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94