A report to propose an amendment to the functions of the Standards Panel, which will streamline the joint functions of the Audit and Governance Committee and Standards Panel.

The Head of Legal Services (HLS) introduced the report the purpose of which was to propose changes to the code of conduct arrangements in particular the way that members of the standards panel are made aware of the decisions made by the monitoring officer and officers.  The proposal is to improve transparency, usefulness and time of member feedback for officers and the monitoring officer.

The HSL provided the committee with a presentation highlighting the relevant changes proposed, in response to committee questions, it was noted:

1.     In relation to concerns with the new process taking up more time of officers, the HLS said the situation would be monitored but suggested having looked at the time that had been spent preparing for a particular meeting the new process would be considerably less as it would just be information sharing over email or an informal conversation with members in real time rather than an official meeting and preparing for an official meeting six months to a year after the actual issue had been dealt with.

2.     The HSL explained that the Council has 4 independent persons who are usually picked on their availability to sit on the standards panel. Once a complaint is started, the same independent person would be used throughout the process. It was confirmed that the parish council representative is nominated by Herefordshire Association of Local Councils (HALC).

3.     The HSL confirmed there was no official sanctions under the Council’s code of conduct. The code of conduct reporting process / a standards hearing was the only sanction in place.

4.     A report from the standards commission went before central government two years ago with regards to making changes around sanctions but the response back was they had no current plans to make any changes to the to the current regime.

5.     The HSL explained that the Chairperson of the committee only has authority as set out in the constitution which is typically in relation to the conduct and efficient discharge of a meeting and currently does not give them the power to remove a member from the panel/ committee. It was explained that only full council could remove a member from a committee, but where a sub-committee had been created, the owners of the Sub-Committee were entitled to remove / amend members as necessary.

6.     It was highlighted that the Audit and Governance committee were responsible for appointing the three members to the standards panel.

7.     With regards to the wording in Appendix 2 “Such notices will be retained until the later of 6 years, or the subject member ceasing to be an elected member”.the HSL recognised comments made surrounding councillors who leave and return to the authority. It was suggested that the wording be revised to state notices will be retained for 6 years.

8.     It was suggested and agreed that should for any reason a member of the standards panel be unable to act (a complaint made against them, a conflict of interest, sickness etc.), the committee appoints a further 2 members as “reserves”.

RESOLVED

That Committee:

a)             Considered and approved the proposals in principle; and

b) recommended to full Council to change the Constitution as set out in Appendix 1 to enable:

(i) a change to process used by Standards Panel to better enable concurrent oversight of the Code of Conduct standards arrangements as set out in the report; and

(ii) a change to the Code of Conduct, in relation to Disclosure of Non-Registerable Interests, to reflect case law on this issue and to protect the position of all members by clarifying the circumstances in which disclosure in a relevant meeting will be appropriate, and, in such case, what appropriate participation may follow;

(iii) the Audit and Governance committee to have the provision to appoint a further two members to the standards panel in reserve should a permanent member be unable to act for any reason; and

(iv) the Terms of Reference for the Committee is changed to include the established oversight and monitoring of the Complaints and Information Governance processes.

c) approved the amendments to the website procedure to be used when dealing with complaints, set out at Appendix 2 with the amendments to the retention of notices and to reflect the Code and the adopted arrangements, subject to the committee’s recommendation that notices are retained for a period of 6 Years.