Issue - meetings

To consider the monitoring officer’s report.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report. The officer highlighted the recommendations set out in the report for the adoption of the proposed new arrangements for investigating allegations under the member code of conduct. The Monitoring Officer explained that since joining, he considered the role of investigating parish council complaints to have gone well. He expanded that one of the actions he had taken since joining the councils was to look at the existing arrangements of how the current complaints process operated. From this, he had set out a proposed new arrangement which was detailed in the report. The officer also explained that a consultation process had been conducted with the parish councils invited to provide feedback.

In response to a question surrounding the parish council feedback rate, the officer explained that he had received six responses with some being acknowledgement emails while others providing significantly more detailed responses. The officer elaborated that he had not expected a high number of responses but instead, had wanted to at least provide parish clerks the opportunity to provide feedback before a possible adoption.

A question was asked on the process or recruiting an independent person and the requirements to be appointed to the role. The officer’s response was that the process was statutory and had to be advertised, and that the position was generally for a year, although due to Covid-19 the council had extended its current independent persons for an additional timeframe. The role was independent, and persons connected to councillors of the authority were excluded from eligibility. The officer also expanded that recruitment was a difficult process from experience due to the grace and favour nature of the role.

The committee asked whether there was any financial impact from adopting the officer’s recommendations. The officer explained that his role was employed to undertake these responsibilities and that he did not expect any additional cases to arise from the arrangements, but rather they would be approached differently.

RESOLVED: to

1.     Note the requirement that the Committee for Standards in Public Life Best
Practice recommendations should be adopted by all councils and that the draft Arrangements implement all but two of the Best Practice recommendations.

2.     Subject to changes, recommend the Arrangements for investigating complaints and recommend them to the next appropriate meeting of Council for adoption.

3.     Request the Monitoring Officer to ensure that the register of members gifts and hospitality is updated and published quarterly.