Agenda and minutes

Further to an email that he had sent to the Chair, Cllr. Fowler asked that a question be discussed under ‘Urgent Items’. The Chair had replied to the email to advise that the matter in question was not in the remit of the Committee and therefore did not allow the discussion to take place.

RESOLVED- That the Minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 11 September 2020 be APPROVED as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

·         Disclosable Pecuniary Interest;

·         Other interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

Executive Director and Monitoring Officer Mark Trillo (MT) advised members that the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) was conducting a broad review of the infrastructure and institutions which dealt with standards in public life. CSPL was consulting with stakeholders to determine the most appropriate way of promoting standards in public life through those institutions and the consultation exercise was due to close on 18 December 2020. A link to the survey was enclosed in the report for members to submit their own views.

The review was to look at best practice and identify any themes and gaps in the way the 7 Principles of Public Life were promoted and maintained. CSPL wanted to check whether the Nolan principles were well understood, properly embedded and continued to reflect the standards expected by the public of those who served them.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted and authority be given to officers to feed back any relevant response to the consultation exercise.

Senior Officer (Governance & Member Support) – Linden Vernon (LV) presented the report reviewing the work of the Standards Committee throughout 2019/20.

There had been an increase in the number of complaints received regarding alleged breaches of the Code of Conduct, which was comparable with the relevant figures at High Peak Borough Council. This higher number was frequently accounted for by several complaints being received in relation to 1 incident. Over half of the 2019/20 complaints had related to 1 incident. Future reports would give a breakdown clarifying this point.

Conversely, the number of complaints dealt with by the Local Government Ombudsman had dropped considerably from previous years.

RESOLVED – That the report be NOTED.

MT advised Members on the content of the Annual Letter for 2019/20, which was appended 66to the report.

Ombudsman involvement represented the 3^rd and final stage in the Council’s complaints process, with complaints not having been resolved by stages 1 (Service Area response) or 2 (Monitoring Officer response). 5 such instances occurred in the period, of which 2 were upheld by the Ombudsman. However in both cases, there was no recommendation made for any further remedy other than an apology. When seen against the total of 82 complaints received, this illustrated the strength of the Council in ensuring complaints were dealt with promptly and appropriately.

A comparison table of 13 Local Authorities was included in the report, showing the number of complaints and enquiries received and the number of decisions made.

RESOLVED – That the contents of the Ombudsman’s Annual Letter be NOTED.

LV introduced the Learning and Development Programme which focussed on responding to members’ training requirements and addressing any changes in legislation and the Council’s priorities.

In the initial part of 2019/20 concentration was centred on the May 2019 election, with a series of seminars for the induction of councillors. This process had been refined following feedback from previous occasions.

All seminars were shown in a table with the number of District Councillors in attendance at each one.

Latterly, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, training had been done virtually via Microsoft ‘Teams’. There had been a noticeable increase in attendance at training seminars and meetings since the introduction of the virtual aspect. A request was made for a comparison in attendance numbers between ‘actual’ and ‘virtual’ meetings the next time this report was tabled.

MT confirmed that there would be a ‘Standards Update’ in the new year.

RESOLVED – That the report be NOTED.

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 100 I (1)  of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the Paragraphs indicated.

Members considered the Exempt Minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2020.

Members considered a report on a complaint made under the Code of Conduct in the period since the committee previously met.