Agenda item

To receive a report by Jonathan Mair, Director Legal and Democratic.

The Director Legal and Democratic introduced the report and provided some context on the terms of reference.

He outlined the consultation questions in the report and in the appendix of the report a series of responses. The key issue that the consultation sought to address was the ability to impose more meaningful sanctions in very rare cases where Councillors behaved extremely badly. As the sector has a lack of meaningful remedies which could be imposed when there has been a breach of the code. The consultation contained that the government may introduce the ability for Councillors to suspend Councillors in the most extreme cases and a number of questions linked to that.

Cllr Flower explained that 2011 Localism Act produced nothing, and it was difficult for any meaningful sanctions to come out of it. He emphasised the importance of learning lessons from the past and referenced pg 5 - publicising investigation outcomes. He added that it was fine to publicise when the Councillor had been found to have done something wrong, but every single complaint should not be publicised. It needed to be distilled down to when there has been a requirement to take appropriate action.

He referenced Pg10 - do you think Cllrs should be disqualified more than once? He explained that this encroached on Democracy and the people that elect Cllrs were the final arbiters. He raised concerns with Pg 32 - gross misconduct and felt there were more constructive remedies applied as it would have to be quite dramatic to bring about a disqualification based on concerns around the compliance with the code of conduct. Pg 13, he asked if there was a need for another national appeals board as it would slow down the process and would be better to have a reciprocal arrangement with a neighbouring authority to deal with one another’s appeals.

Cllr Haynes added that it would be useful for a modified response to the consultation to be sent out to the Cllrs as a separate email to encourage completion.

Cllr Bawden informed that she did not disagree with the point that there should be a local authority peer led process but there should be an external appeals body. 

Cllr Bartlett explained that he had witnessed a culture change in code of conduct complaints against Cllrs and there was a need for more training.

The Director Legal and Democratic outlined that pg 38 of the consultation- do you think there is a need for an external national body to hear appeals? Councillors agreed that there does not need to be a national body and were happy to co-operate with neighbouring authorities.

The second clarification around numbers 31 and 32 of the consultation - is there a case for immediate disqualification for gross misconduct when there is theft and physical violence impacting the safety of members? There would be immediate disqualification for gross misconduct such as, theft and physical violence but not disqualification if you have a series of suspensions.

Decision: The Committee considered and approved the draft consultation response, with necessary amendment, for submission as the Council’s formal response.

Reason for Decision:

The Audit and Governance Committee has responsibility for: (i) promoting and helping maintain high standards of conduct of Members (including co-optees), Parish and Town Councillors and any other relevant appointed representatives including advising the Council on issues relating to the Members’ Code of Conduct; and, (ii) recommending training in respect of conduct standards and ensuring appropriate arrangements to consider and determine allegations of any breach concerning the Members’ Code of Conduct and any other code / protocol concerning Member Conduct.