Apologies had been received from Mr Hartley, Councillor Allen and Councillor Naylor.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of

a)      the Standards Committee meeting held on 10 February 2011 attached;

b)      the Standards Assessment Sub-committee meeting held on 8 November 2011 attached.

RESOLVED:

1. That the minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 10 February 2011 be received and approved and the Chairman be authorised to sign them.
2. That the minutes of the meeting of the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee held on 8 November 2011 be received and approved and the Chairman be authorised to sign them, subject to the following amendment,

Ø      Minute 2 – after ‘Planning Committee but that he’ , insert ‘had taken advice and’.

There were no representations from members of the public.

The Monitoring Officer will provide a verbal update on any developments relating to the future of the Standards Regime and significant cases that have been determined.

The Chairman welcomed the new Monitoring Officer, Paul Evans, to his first meeting of the Standards Committee.

The Monitoring Officer stated that the Localism Act 2011 had received Royal Assent and contained provisions for a new standards regime.  Regulations concerning these provisions would be introduced in due course.  He informed the Committee that,

Standards for England and the current mandatory Code of Conduct would be abolished.  The Act puts a number of new building blocks in place, namely,

Ø      Councils have a general duty to promote high standards

Ø      Seven principles reflecting current practice inform this duty but there are no longer express controls over disrespect, bullying, misuse of resources or breach of confidentiality

Ø      The Council must adopt a code to reflect the seven principles and this Code will apply to Councillors and voting co-optees in these particular capacities

Ø      It will be a criminal offence not to disclose pecuniary interests (yet to be defined)

Ø      Arrangements must be in place so that an allegation of a breach of the Council’s Code is investigated

Ø      There will be no formal sanctions

Ø      An independent person must be consulted at the stages of the investigation and the subject Member of the complaint will have access to this person (Recruitment of the Independent Person will be by public advertisement, and councillors, co-optees and officers cannot apply if they have been in the role for the past five years)

Ø      Flexibility is therefore introduced in how the council manages its own circumstances.

In terms of timescales for implementation, it was expected that commencement orders for the Standards provisions would start to be laid from 31 January 2012.  The Monitoring Officer stressed that any new regime had to be owned by the councillors.

In response to questions, the committee heard,

Ø      Transitional arrangements would be in place for any current and ongoing investigations with a view to their being completed within six months.  There would not be any support available from an Ethical Standards Officer.

Ø      Options would need to be put to Members on the drafting of the new Code of Conduct and the Monitoring Officer’s role would be to facilitate this development

Ø      Existing Protocols would need to be examined separately

Ø      The Council could appoint one or more Independent Persons to act on allegations of breach of the Code

In discussion, the Committee considered the deterrent aspect of the Code and emphasised the need for the Council to preserve its reputation.  The Chairman emphasised that the Committee had no remit to draft the new Code.  The Committee however considered that it would be happy to assist the Council with any preparations.

The Committee also received an update from the Monitoring Officer that the Council has decided not to contest an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Local Government Standards in England) handed down to former councillor Marc Cranfield-Adams in June this year by the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber).

RESOLVED:

That it be agreed that the Chairman  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

The Committee is asked to consider a draft of its Annual Report.

The Committee reviewed the draft document and agreed a number of changes to be incorporated in the Annual Report to be presented to Council.

RESOLVED:

The Annual Report be recommended to the Council at its meeting on 13 December 2011.

The Committee is asked to confirm its preferred membership for the sub-committees

The Head of Democratic Services introduced the report which advised retention of the current membership on the sub-committees.  In response to a question as to whether the fact that all elected Members of this Committee were also Members of the Planning Committee could prove problematic, the Monitoring Officer advised that this was not an issue.

RESOLVED:

That it be agreed to retain the membership of the sub-committees as agreed at the meeting of the Standards Committee on 11 November 2010, namely,

1.      Assessment sub-committee - Ms Fraser (Chairman), Mr Hartley, Mr Dix,  Mr Sandford, Councillor Allen and Councillor Linnette

2.      Review sub-committee - Mr Colton (Chairman), Mrs Hill, Councillor Elengorn, Councillor Naylor

3.      Protocol sub-committee - Mr Colton (Chairman), Mr Sandford, Councillor Allen

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 from Committee Members.  The Committee noted that a number of the Council’s meetings and those of the Planning Committee had been webcast and welcomed this initiative.

The Committee is asked to consider its work programme.

The Work Programme was considered and amended in the light of the requirements of Chapter 7 of the Localism Act 2011.

RESOLVED:

That all work programme items be deleted with the exception of the Standing Item.