Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mr Greggains and Councillor Jones.

Members are asked to declare any interests in matters for consideration at the meeting.

None.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 18 March 2008 attached.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 March 2008 be received and approved and the Chair be authorised to sign them, subject to the following amendments:

Minute 38, final paragraph: Insert “and the review’s terms of reference for 2008/09” after “2008-09”.

Minute 42, 3^rd paragraph: Insert “that some of their colleagues” after “commented” and delete “they”.

[The Chair reported that she had not been able to go to a meeting with the two Group Leaders and the Chief Executive, but would be doing so on 3 July 2008. The Chair also reported that she had not been able to write an article for Arcadia but would write one once the new local assessment process had been in place for a couple of months.

Following a discussion over an uncompleted action from the previous meeting, the Assistant Head of Legal Services agreed to circulate advice from the Charities’ Commission on the duties of being a trustee.

The Chair reported that she would be attending the Standards Annual Conference and would ask Mr Greggains to attend also.]

None.

To inform the Committee of the new arrangements for the determination by local authorities of complaints of breaches of the Members Code of Conduct in place of the Standards Board for England and to advise members of the necessity to appoint a sub-committee for the initial consideration of complaints and a further sub-committee to review initial decisions by the first sub-committee not to proceed where this is requested by complainants.

Report of the Assistant Head of Legal Services attached.

(1)               An Initial Assessment Sub-Committee be established, with the terms of reference set out in Appendix One.

(2)                The following six members be appointed to the Initial Assessment Sub-Committee until 23 September 2008:

            Mr Buckley, Mr Greggains, Mrs Hill, Cllr Parsons, Cllr King and Cllr Stanier.

(3)               A Review Sub-Committee be established, with the terms of reference set out in Appendix Two.

(4)               The following five members be appointed to the Review Sub-Committee until 23 September 2008:

            Councillor Bennett, Ms Fraser, Mr Gould, Rev Peggy Jackson and Councillor Jones.

(5)               The Chief Executive, after consultation with the Chair, be authorised to appoint Hearings Sub-Committees when required for the determination of individual complaints, consisting of five members including at least two independent members and two councillors, with the terms of reference set out in Appendix Three.

(6)               The Monitoring Officer Protocol set out in Appendix Four be adopted.

(7)               Meetings of the Initial Assessment Sub-Committee be scheduled to meet once every calendar month but only be called if it be apparent, five clear days before the meeting, that there is business to be discharged.

(8)               Initial Assessment and Review Sub-Committees be authorised to meet in camera, unless the relevant sub-committee determines otherwise in any particular instance.

(9)               The Monitoring Officer be instructed to arrange appropriate publicity in accordance with the Regulations and Guidance, after consultation with the Chair.

(10)           Complainants be required to give their name and address, unless exceptional circumstances exist or the complaint appears to relate to significant wrongdoing.

(11)           All complainants be required to use the Council’s “Complaint Against a Councillor” form.

 [The Committee requested that, on page 10 under “Public or Private Meetings”, 2^nd paragraph, “Initial Hearings” be amended to read “Initial Assessment”. The Committee also requested that the terms of reference for the Initial Assessment and Review Sub-Committees be amended to reflect the change in the number of members on these committees.]

Guidance published by the Standards Board for England on 2 May 2008 is attached.

(1)               The report be noted.

(2)               That officers be requested to set intended delivery dates against all the actions outlined in the report.

[The Committee requested that the Corporate Governance Annual Review Schedule (item 3(i) of Appendix A) include a comment on the outcome / results of the equalities monitoring.

The Committee praised the report’s comprehensiveness.]

v     The Cabinet agreed a revised Corporate Governance Code of Practice at the meeting on 22 January 2008. Standards Committee received this report at its meeting on 18 March and comments made were incorporated into the final version which was reported to, and agreed by Council on 22 April2008.

v     It is a requirement of the Annual Governance Statement in the Statement of Accounts that there is an annual report on compliance with the Code.

v     This report documents the current position and whilst there are no significant failings with adherence to the Code, highlights a few areas where actions are required.

v     The Annual Position Statement will be reported to Cabinet at its meeting on 2 June 2008.

Report of the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management attached.

(1)               The report be noted.

(2)               That officers be requested to set intended delivery dates against all the actions outlined in the report.

[The Committee requested that the results of the monitoring exercise on equalities be circulated to the Committee.

The Committee was impressed with the report’s comprehensiveness.]

This item enables members of the Committee to provide any relevant feedback in relation to the meetings that they have attended as observers since the last meeting.

The Committee noted that the Director of Environment had written to all Councillors, offering guidance on their involvement with parking enforcement appeals. The letter had caused concern amongst members and the Committee felt that its tone was too didactic. It was agreed that the clerk would write to the Director of Environment and the officer who drafted the letter, and send a copy to the Cabinet Member for Traffic, Transport and Parking, informing them of this view.

[The clerk agreed to circulate the dates of all sub-committee meetings to Committee Members.]