The main purpose of a Standards hearing
sub-Committee is to decide whether a member has breached the Code
of Conduct and, if so, to decide if a sanction should be applied
and what form the sanction should take. The membership of a hearing
sub-Committee will be the same as the corresponding consideration
sub-Committee for that case. This sub-committee must be chaired by
an independent member of the standards committee.
The sub-Committee will seek to establish
‘Findings of Fact’, upon which they will decide whether
or not the subject member failed to follow the code of conduct. The
Investigating officer will summarise and ask questions on his/her
report, and the subject member, complainant and witness may be
asked to give evidence.
If the sub-Committee finds that there has been a
breach of the code of conduct they will then consider the
appropriate sanction for the breach, taking into consideration any
mitigating or exacerbating circumstances.
As with all exempt information decisions, the
sub-committee will decide whether the public interest in
maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in
disclosing the information.