To consider the report of the Independent Chairman of the Standards Panel in respect of a breach of Herefordshire Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct, by Councillor MAF Hubbard. 

Wards: County-wide

[Note: this report will be sent “to follow”, because the Standards Panel met on 2 November 2012, and there was insufficient time to produce the report before this agenda went to print.  ]

The Assistant Director (Law Governance and Resilience) reported on a breach of the Code of Conduct by Councillor MAF Hubbard, which had been reported as a standards complaint by the Chief Executive of Herefordshire Council.

The complaint had been investigated independently by Ms Olwen Dutton of Bevan Brittan LLB, and she had published her findings in a report.  On 2^nd November 2012, the Standards Panel, comprising Mr Jake Bharier (Appointed Independent Person), Councillor Chris Chappell (Local Authority Advisor) and Mr Richard Gething (Parish and Town Council Advisor), had met Councillor Hubbard to consider the report and all aspects of the complaint. 

The Committee considered the Appointed Independent Person’s report which concluded that Councillor Hubbard had breached the Members’ Code of Conduct on two counts: (1) that he had failed to comply with one of the ten general principles of public life – namely honesty and integrity – by removing a confidential document from a Council office, to which he was not entitled; and (2) that he had failed to comply with Paragraph 4(a)(iv) of the Code of Conduct, by disclosing to the Hereford Times a document which was exempt from publication for reasons of commercial confidentiality. 

The Assistant Director (Law Governance and Resilience) circulated the full list of sanctions available to be administered by the Audit and Governance Committee.  The Committee also considered the sanctions which were recommended by the Appointed Independent Person, namely:

·         The Audit and Governance Committee would present a report on the investigation and the consideration of the complaints to the next full Council meeting; and

·         Training should be arranged for Councillor Hubbard to ensure that he is fully apprised of the established processes for seeking advice;

The Committee also discussed the following issues relating to the complaint:

·         Whether there were any alternative or additional options available in terms of sanctions, and whether the sanctions proposed by the Appointed Independent Person were sufficiently, or insufficiently stringent.  It was agreed that the sanctions proposed should be administered as set out in the report;

·         Whether the decision of the Appointed Independent Person was fair and balanced, given the facts.  It was agreed that it was. 

·         The Assistant Director (Law governance and Resilience) advised the Committee that it also had powers to direct that any complaint be re-investigated if appropriate.  Members decided that in this case, the investigation had been thorough and satisfactory, and that no further investigations were necessary. 

The Committee also noted as a general issue which was separate from this complaint case, that under the previous Standards regime, the sanctions system was more clearly defined.  Members felt that the Localism Act, by enabling local authorities to self-regulate, had introduced a lesser-defined set of sanctions without a finite number of examples.  Some limitations were clear, such as not allowing any sanction which would impinge upon Members’ powers to assist their electorate, but others were not, such as directing a member to write an apology for a particular action.  The Committee agreed that there was merit in considering in greater detail, the powers and sanctions available to it for Standards cases, at a future meeting. 

RESOLVED:  that

(a)        the Audit & Governance Committee approves the recommendations of the Appointed Independent Person following the Standards Panel meeting on 2^nd November;

(b)       the Audit & Governance Committee reports the outcome of these breaches to Council; and

(c)        the Audit and Governance Committee, at a future meeting, considers the powers and sanctions available to it in respect of Standards Cases under the Localism Act 2011.