Purpose of report:

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.

The Standards Committee noted the contents of the report and made the following comments:

·       Rewording of paragraph 9 to read ‘The Monitoring Officer considered that the complaints were minor allegations, which had been resolved between the Councillors via the social media site, and there would not be sufficient public interest to justify the time and costs involved in an investigation into this matter.’

·       In regards to Complaint #0018644, requested confirmation that social media training had taken place – to be reported to the next Committee.  (ACTION)

·       In regards to Complaint #0017352, the Committee requested confirmation that the first three recommendations have been acted upon by the Littlemore Parish Council – to be reported at the next Committee meeting.  (ACTION)

·       Following consideration of the sanctions applied to Complaint #0017352, the Committee questioned whether it would be appropriate in future cases to include an additional sanction - requesting that Parish Councils also publish decision notices about this Parish Councillors on their websites.  Emma Griffiths, Legal Adviser, advised that this would be considered by the Monitoring Officer for future cases.

·       The report table in Paragraph 4 include an additional column to report on the status of each complaint for clarity.  (ACTION)

Emma Griffiths, informed the Committee that whilst paragraph 14 of the report stated that the general dispensation granted to individual members under Section 33 of the Localism Act 2011 had expired on 30 September 2022, an extension had been agreed at Council on 21 March 2022 as part of the annual Constitution Review for 2021/22.  The Committee noted the Council resolution to extend the dispensations in Part 22.5(e) of the Constitution granted under section 33 of the Localism Act 2011 for a further four years from 1 October 2022.