Cllr Susanna Pressel was elected Chair for the council year 2021-22.

Cllr Mark Lygo was elected Vice-Chair for the council year 2021-22.

There were no declarations of interest.

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 Monitoring Officer introduced the report for the period 1 October 2020 to 14 June 2021. She advised that 16 complaints received under the Members’ Code of Conduct had been considered by herself and the Independent Persons. Although this was a high number of complaints it was important to note the wider context as three of the complaints related to the same incident; and a further 10 complaints had been submitted by the same complainant. The Monitoring Officer referred the Committee to the learning points detailed in paragraphs 10 to 19 of the report.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that there had been no dispensations to an individual member, granted under Section 33 of the 2011 Localism Act, during the period covered by the report.

The Standards Committee resolved to note the content of the report.

The Committee is recommended to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2020.

The Standards Committee resolved to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2020.

The Committee is scheduled to meet at 6.00pm on the following dates:

·         14 September 2021

·         16 November 2021

·         23  March 2022

The Standards Committee noted the dates of the future meetings.

The Monitoring Officer advised that the main areas of business for the Committee would be;

·         a review of the 2021 Member Training and Induction programme which would inform the arrangements for the 2022 programme

·         endorsement of a new Code of Conduct for Members for recommendation to Council for adoption; the draft would be based on the LGA model and developed in collaboration with the other Oxfordshire local authorities.