Agenda item

To receive the report from the Head of Legal and Democratic.

The committee received the code of conduct annual report for 2022/23, presented by the head of legal and democratic. This report was brought to the committee in order to update the members on ethical standards across the authorities and provided anonymised highlights of the type of complaints the authorities received from across the period.

The head of legal and democratic noted that a substantial number of code of conduct complaints from several years ago were from interpersonal disputes on the parish council level. As the procedure for handling such complaints was considered to be lacking rigour, the head of legal and democratic worked with the Monitoring Officers from the other councils to produce and adopt an Oxfordshire wide model code of conduct. This new code, along with the free training sessions he had been running for all parish councillors, had proven to significantly improve the situation as members are clearer on what they need to declare. The chair thanked the head of legal and democratic for running these training sessions and stressed their importance.

In terms of handling complaints, the head of legal and democratic informed the committee that they now use the public interest test to decide whether an investigation is appropriate and deal with complaints robustly at source. The head of legal and democratic made it clear that interpersonal disputes will not be dealt with and that resources should be directed to the more serious breaches of the code such as bullying, harassment, and corruption. He also mentioned that complaints that are dealt with summarily would not be recorded in the report – an example of a complaint that would be addressed like this would be where the member was not acting in their capacity as a councillor.

Members also noted that the vast majority of complaints come from the town and parish councils, few for district councillors, and that the only time that outcomes of a complaint would be brought into the public domain is if the standards panel published notification of a breach. It was also emphasised that serious breaches of the code of conduct were rare. The pre- and post-election periods did see an increase in complaints but the head of legal and democratic believed that these were potentially due to the bedding in of the new administrations at all councils and he is currently working to progress them.

Members then asked if people were made aware when a complaint was made against them and the head of legal and democratic confirmed that in most instances this would be the case, but not always. For example, where a complaint was made but disposed of summarily, the member would not likely be made aware of it.

In addition, the committee inquired as to the number of complaints received per parish, and if lots were coming from a small group. In response, the head of legal and democratic confirmed there had been examples of several complaints to the same parish but that he works proactively with the parish clerks and members to try to limit this. He also mentioned that in future reports he could also provide a confidential appendix which might provide the committee with more detail on specifics such as these numbers. The committee agreed with the suggestion as they thought that this detail would enable them to better understand the complaints and thus enable them to provide greater ethical oversight.

Members of the committee then discussed the fact that some very suitable candidates for local parishes did not stand for election due to the perceived potential risk of abuse or harassment, and they stressed that this needed to change. In response, the head of legal and democratic noted that some people were put off standing for office due to potential behaviours and that he would continue to emphasise the importance of the code of conduct at the parish council level. In addition, he noted that the Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils were pushing for the adoption of the respect and civility pledge which was intended to highlight the fact that, whilst robust debate was inevitable, respect and civility should also be at the forefront of local government. However, it was brought to members’ attention that the current standards regime had no real enforcement mechanism as there was no appropriate sanctions to punish bad behaviour and that this position was unlikely to be changed by central government.

Members then questioned some of the complaints listed as bullying but where then not investigated. However, the head of legal and democratic clarified that some complaints would be listed as bullying or harassment by the complainant but might not actually be that. In those instances, he would inform the members of what behaviour is expected but the complaint would not progress beyond that. 

Finally, the committee inquired into the role of the independent persons in the complaints process and in response, the head of legal and democratic informed members that there were now six independent persons assisting the council, and that they are involved in all stages of the complaints process.

Overall, as the committee was satisfied with the report and the officer’s response to their questions, as well as the recommendation for future reports to come with a more detailed confidential appendix, they agreed to note it.

RESOLVED: to note the code of conduct annual report 2022/23.