Agenda and minutes

There were no urgent items.

Meeting held on Friday 10 November 2017.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 12 November 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

·         Disclosable Pecuniary Interest;

·         Other interests.

There were no declarations made.

At the request of Councillor David Fowler, each person present identified themselves, following recent changes to the membership of the Committee.

Linden Vernon presented the report to members, confirming that 5 training events had taken place during the previous year with most of the training being provided by Alliance members of staff. In addition, support was being provided to members in the use of their tablet devices and the ongoing introduction of the Mod.Gov committee management system.

Any presentations and course materials were published on the Councillors’ Portal within the Intranet for future reference.

Future seminars had been arranged on the following subjects:-

·         Modern Day Slavery;

·         Audit and Accounts;

·         The General Data Protection Regulations (also open to parish councillors);

·         Safeguarding.

It was agreed that, in future reports, where seminars were arranged with a restricted number of invitees, this would be stated.

RESOLVED – That the report be NOTED.

The Government’s Committee for Standards in Public Life had launched a consultation exercise to inform its review of local government ethical standards. The consultation was due to close on 18 May 2018.

Prior to the introduction of the Localism Act 2011, Code of Conduct matters were dealt with by the Standards Board of England (now abolished). The consultation asked whether current arrangements were adequate.

The Terms of Reference of the review were:-

a)    Examine the structures, processes and practices in local

government in England for:

· Maintaining codes of conduct for local councillors;

· Investigating alleged breaches fairly and with due

process;

· Enforcing codes and imposing sanctions for misconduct;

· Declaring interests and managing conflicts of interest; and

· Whistleblowing.

b)    Assess whether the existing structures, processes and

practices are conducive to high standards of conduct in local

government;

·      Make any recommendations for how they can be improved; and

·      Note any evidence of intimidation of councillors, and make

recommendations for any measures that could be put in place

to prevent and address such intimidation.

Members discussed the following aspects of the subject:-

·         The Council was to respond to the consultation as SMDC, not the Alliance;

·         Clarity regarding Code of Conduct (COC) matters required at Parish Council level. It was pointed out that training sessions had been provided in this regard, but were poorly attended;

·         Lack of ‘teeth’ regarding breaches of the COC under the Localism Act, except for failure to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest, which was a criminal act;

·         Social Media – a grey area and a potential minefield regarding standards-related matters.

RESOLVED – That the report be NOTED and that authority be delegated to officers to respond to the consultation on behalf of the Council.  

The Chair to move:-

"That pursuant to Section 100A(2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that exempt information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 100I (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the paragraphs indicated."

RESOLVED - That pursuant to Section 100A (2) and (4) of the Local Government Act , 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that confidential information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 100i (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the Paragraphs indicated.

Meeting held on Friday 10 November 2017.

The Committee approved the Exempt Minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2017.

Members noted the contents of a report regarding Complaints made under the Code of Conduct.