Apologies were received from Ms Fraser and Mrs Hill.

On 6 July 2010 Council resolved:

That confirmation of the appointment of new Independent Members of the Standards Committee be delegated to the Chief Executive to allow them to commence their period of service prior to the next meeting of Council.

The Committee is asked to note that the Chief Executive under this delegated authority has approved the appointment of Simon Colton, Howard Dix,

Janet Fraser, Sam Hartley, Rosemary Hill and Neil Sandford to serve as Independent Members of the Standards Committee.

The Clerk to the Standards Committee confirmed that the Chief Executive, under delegated authority, had approved the appointment of Independent Members of the Standards Committee and that this would be reported to Council on 19 October 2010.

RESOLVED:

1.         That the following appointments as Independent Members of the Standards Committee be noted,

            Simon Colton,

Howard Dix,

Janet Fraser,

Sam Hartley,

Rosemary Hill,

Neil Sandford.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To appoint the Independent Chairman of the Standards Committee.

RESOLVED:

1.      That Mr Simon Coltonbe appointed Chairman of the Standards Committee for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2010/2011.

To appoint one Independent Member as Vice-chairman and one Elected Member as Vice-chairman.

RESOLVED:

1.      That Ms Janet Fraser be appointed from the Independent Members as Vice-Chairman of the Standards Committee for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2010/2011.

2.      That Councillor Linnette be appointed from the Elected Members as Vice-Chairman of the Standards Committee for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2010/2011.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 8 July 2010 attached.

RESOLVED:

1. That the Minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 8 July 2010 be received and approved and the Chairman be authorised to sign them.

This report highlights significant cases that have been determined by the Standards for England this municipal year.

Report of the Interim Head of Legal and Electoral Services and Monitoring Officer attached.

The Monitoring Officer will also provide a verbal update on any local proceedings.

The Monitoring Officer introduced her report which highlighted cases where for exceptional reasons there had been referral at the Assessment stage to Standards for England.

During discussion the Committee considered that a Monitoring Officer would be unlikely to pursue a complaint personally unless there were very serious grounds and that a situation where a high number of councillors, if not the whole Council would be an extreme occurrence in a large council such as a London Borough.  The committee considered a suggestion that reinforcement of code of conduct training should be undertaken through the political groups and possibly via a system of mentors.

RESOLVED:

1. That the content of the report be noted.

This report informs the Committee that On 20 September 2010, the Secretary of State confirmed that the compulsory requirements of the Standards regime will be abolished.

Report of the Interim Head of Legal and Electoral Services and Monitoring Officer attached.

The Monitoring Officer introduced her report which informed the committee of recent Government announcements on the abolition of Standards for England and the compulsory elements of the Standards regime.  In response to questions from the Committee, the Monitoring Officer advised that the Council could choose to continue to have a standalone Standards Committee or to disband it and that she would be meeting with the senior leadership of the Council and the statutory officers to discuss ways forward for the Authority.

In discussion, some members of the Standards Committee felt that current committee members should be involved in outlining any future plans for a local standards regime.  The committee requested that details of the costs of the standards regime at this council should be included in the Annual Report.

RESOLVED:

1. That the content of the report be noted.

This report asks the Committee to consider the draft annual report and make arrangements for it to be finalized and presented to Council.

Report of the Interim Head of Legal and Electoral Services and Monitoring Officer attached.

The Committee considered its Annual Report and discussed its tone and content. Further amendments and suggestions were made for incorporation in the final version of the Committee’s Annual Report. It was noted that the Standards Committee itself had not been as active as in previous years but this was because of the amount of time which had been spent on the assessment, review and hearing of complaints by the Sub-committees.  It was the Committee’s hope that Council’s resolution to adopt the revised guidance for Members from May 2010 and clear criteria for the assessment of complaints would lead to fewer complaints in the current year.  Subject to the further amendments being incorporated, the Committee endorsed the report and recommended it to Council.

RESOLVED:

1. The report be recommended to the Council at its meeting on 19 October 2010.

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.

Although there were no specific reports from committee members, there was a brief discussion on the appropriateness of aggressive questioning of officers by councillors in public meetings.  It was agreed that Member/Officer relations was a matter taken seriously by the Committee especially in the light of complaints heard in the previous year.

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

Report of the Head of Democratic Services attached.

The Chairman opened a discussion on the future work of the Committee.  Issues raised included the need to review how the Assessment Criteria were working in practice, the promotion and maintenance of the importance of standards across all committees, the need to keep abreast of developments nationally and how other authorities were preparing for the abolition of the Standards regime, and the need to examine the costs of the complaints process locally in terms of proportionality.

The Committee agreed that in terms of its sub-committees, Ms Fraser would be chairing assessment sub-committees while the Chairman would chair review and hearings sub-committees. 

RESOLVED:

1.      That the work programme be noted and updated in the light of the Committee’s discussion.