Issue - meetings

Issue - meetings

Code of Conduct: summary of complaints and individual dispensations - DD MONTH YEAR until DD MONTH YEAR

Meeting: 25/02/2019 - Standards Committee (Item 15)

15 Code of Conduct: summary of complaints and individual dispensations - 1 September 2018 until 31 January 2019 pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Report of:    Anita Bradley, Monitoring Officer

 

Purpose:     

To advise the Committee of:

1.      the number of complaints received under the Members’ Code of Conduct which have been, or are to be, considered by the Head of Law and Governance (in her statutory capacity as the authority’s Monitoring Officer) and the Independent Persons. The report also notes the outcome, where complaints have been concluded; and

2.       the number of dispensations to an individual member, granted under Section 33 of the 2011 Localism Act, by the Monitoring Officer, following consultation with an Independent Person.

 

Recommendation:

That the Standards Committee notes the content of the report.

Minutes:

The Monitoring Officer presented the information report on the number of complaints received under the Members’ Code of Conduct and the number of dispensations to an individual member, granted under Section 33 of the 2011 Localism Act.

 

The Monitoring Officer referred the Committee to Table 4 on page 11 of the report which summarised the three complaints that had been dealt with since 1 September 2018, all of which concerned parish councillors.  For two of these, no action had been taken as the complaints were about employment matters rather than conduct issues.  The Monitoring Officer informed the Committee that the third complaint (reference 14755) had been reassessed, in consultation with an Independent Person, and the conclusion was that there was no longer a public interest in pursuing this complaint.  There were no particular lessons to be drawn from any of these cases.

 

The Committee reflected on the important role of the Monitoring Officer in guiding and advising parish councils, particularly in relation to code of conduct matters. The Monitoring Officer indicated that she intended to establish closer links with the other three parish councils as previously her involvement had been concentrated on dealing with the complaints from the one parish council.

 

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that no requests for individual dispensations had been received.

 

The Standards Committee resolved to note the report.