Apologies were received from Councillors King and Jones, Norman Buckley and Janet Fraser.

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

None

To approve the minutes of

a)      the Standard Committee meeting held on 1 April 2009;

b)      the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee meetings held on 26 March and 23 April 2009;

c)      the Standards Hearing Sub-Committee held on 20 April 2009;

attached

The Minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 1 April 2009, the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee meetings held on 26 March and 23 April 2009, and the Standards Hearing Sub-Committee meeting held on 20 April 2009 be received and approved and the Chair be authorised to sign them, subject to the following amendments to the Hearing Sub-Committee minutes:

In Minutes 7 & 8, after “medical evidence submitted” insert “to the Chair”.

Further to Minute 38 of the Standards Committee meeting, the Committee was informed that the Joint Head of Internal Audit had written to Mr. Buckley to update him on the progress of the fraud awareness strategy.  It was agreed to circulate the e mail to other Committee Members.

Further to Minute 40 of the Standards Committee meeting, the Head of Legal and Electoral Services reported that, due to other work commitments, the online complaints form had not been revised.  The hard copy had been updated and an equalities monitoring form had been produced for complainants.

Further to Minute 43 of the Standards Committee it was agreed that Members should attend Overview and Scrutiny Committees and other meetings on a random basis.  It was acknowledged that there was always a risk of Members being a witness to behaviour that gave rise to a complaint, thereby preventing them from being part of any subsequent Sub-Committee considering the matter.

It was agreed to reconvene the Standards Hearing Sub-Committee on 6 July at 6.pm. The membership to comprise Margaret Hill, Councillors Bennett and Stanier, Janet Fraser and Steven Gould.

There were no representations from members of the public.

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 2008 and comments made were incorporated into the final version which was reported to, and agreed by Council on 22 April 2008.

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.

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.

The Annual Position Statement will be reported to Cabinet at its meeting on 8 June 2009.

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

1. That the amendments to the Corporate Governance Annual Position Statement be noted.
2. That the suggested amendments to paragraphs 3 (a) and 4 (f) of the Annual Position Statement be referred to Cabinet for approval.
3. That a report be submitted to a future meeting on the scope for considering development of high standards of behaviour in partnership arrangements.

Jill Pain, Senior Auditor, presented the report and advised the Committee that a number of amendments had been made to the Annual Position Statement since its circulation.  The revised version would be submitted to Cabinet on 8 June and the Audit Committee on 9 June. An Action Plan had been produced to address further actions identified during the review and progress against these agreed actions would be monitored on an ongoing basis.

The Committee suggested the following further amendments to the Annual Position Statement:

In paragraph 3 (a) delete the two sentences after “A consultation paper was submitted to Standards Committee on 9 December 2008.”

In paragraph 4 (f) reference should be made to the training of co-optees as well as Councillors.

The Chair reported that she would be discussing the issue of how best to approach standards of conduct and behaviour in partnership arrangements (paragraph 3 (h)) with the Chief Executive and it was agreed that a report should be submitted to a future meeting on this matter.

This report updates the Committee on the Annual Return to the Standards Board for England and the issues to be addressed in the annual report of this Committee to the Council.

Report of the Head of Legal & Electoral Services attached.

1.                  That the report be noted.

2.                  That a draft outline of the Committee’s Annual Report be circulated to Members as soon as possible and that a training session be held for Members on 29 June at which the handling of complaints and the content of the Annual Report could be considered.

3.                  That the Committee’s Annual Report be submitted to the September Council meeting.

The Head of Legal and Electoral Services tabled the Standard Board for England’s summary of statistics compiled from local authority quarterly return forms covering the period 8 May to 31 December 2008.  He reported that the Council appeared to have received a high number of complaints about Member Conduct compared with other London Boroughs and that the staff resources devoted to misconduct had had to increase by approximately 40% over the year with a corresponding reduction in resources devoted to prevention.  The overall cost of staff time spent in dealing with misconduct was substantial and this was not sustainable.

Members expressed concern at the amount of time and resources being devoted to misconduct rather than prevention.  It was agreed that this matter should be highlighted in the Committee’s Annual Report and that a Training Session for Members be held on 29 June at which the handling of complaints and the content of the Annual Report could be considered. It was also agreed that the Annual Report should be submitted to Council in September rather than July since the Ciommittee’s meeting in July would be after the July Council meeting.

This report updates the Committee on a range of issues identified in the last work programme.

Report of the Head of Legal & Electoral Services attached.

That the report be noted.

The Committee considered an update on a range of issues identified in the last work programme.

Membership: – four applications for the vacancy for an Independent Member had been received.  Shortlisting would be on 28 May and interviews on 11 June with a view to making a recommendation to 16 June Council.

Training:  Members acknowledged the difficulties in arranging Member training in the year ahead.  However it was agreed that guidance on key issues such as declaration of interests could be posted on the intranet and/or sent to Members.

I.T. Protocol – The Chair hoped to meet with the Party Leaders to discuss this matter prior to a report being submitted to the Committee’s next meeting.

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.

There were no reports.

The Committee’s work programme sets out the planned topics for the year.

Report of the Head of Democratic Services attached.

That subject to the inclusion of the I.T. Protocol in the programme for the July meeting and any additional reports requested by the Committee as detailed in the Minutes above, the work programme be noted.