Agenda item

To receive a report on the outcomes of the Code of Conduct Seminar held on 23 July 2014.

At its meeting held on 9 July 2014 the Committee requested a formal update following the Code of Conduct Seminar open to all Members held on 23 July 2014 led by Hoey Ainscough Associates Ltd., which the Committee had instructed be arranged at its 25 April 2014 meeting to consider the effectiveness of the current Standards regime.

The Chairman introduced the item, noting some of the concerns which had led to the Committee requesting the Seminar, such as the lack of engagement with the complaints process by members, and whether the current Code of Conduct and its attending complaints procedure were robust enough for its purpose.

The Monitoring Officer then presented a report on the outcomes from the Seminar on 23 July, and the Committee considered the issues that arose.

It had been noted that in some authorities the Standards Committee itself, not only its Sub-Committees, was not subject to rules on political proportionality. The Committee considered that with Sub-Committees determining any complaints brought to Review or full Hearings, there was no additional benefit gained from altering the makeup of the Committee itself when the Sub-Committees were not subject to political proportionality rules.

There was discussion around the lack of specificity in the current Code, and whether this led to difficulties for members of the public in identifying which part of the Code was relevant to the specific circumstances and behaviour they wished to complain against, and whether this could have a reputational effect on Wiltshire Council and other councils which utilized the same Code. Members noted the risk of a highly detailed code giving rise to vexatious and trivial complaints, and whether the current procedure was robust enough to filter out such complaints, and so whether the balance between focusing on the serious complaints through the broadness of the Code versus the difficulties in categorizing some councillor actions perhaps felt to be deserving of action under a specific section of the current Code, was appropriate or if further work on the Code was necessary.

Members were in agreement that under the current regime the lack of firm sanctions other than recommending a member be publicly censured had created problems for the perception of councils’ effectiveness, particularly where a subject member chose not to engage with the process. It was also noted that a recommendation from a Wiltshire Council Standards Sub-Committee as the leading authority for a town or parish council to censure a member, could in any case be ignored by that council. Some members had concerns that the lack of sanctions prevented councillors from properly fulfilling their duties to their council employees. It was stated, however, that the government would have to alter existing rules to permit additional sanctions such as reintroducing the power to suspend members, if this was deemed appropriate.

The procedure for dealing with Code of Conduct complaints was assessed, and seeking an initial response from subject members to a complaint and permitting complainants and subject members the right to review an initial assessment decision or investigation assessment, was felt to be appropriate and working satisfactorily.

Other issues raised by the Seminar included the increasing importance of social media for councillors, and whether the council’s current media protocol, which was under review, or the Code itself required further consideration, amendment or advice in that area. Members also discussed whether the decisions of Sub-Committees should be made publicly available once all matters under consideration had concluded, in the interests of transparency.

In light of many of the concerns raised at the Seminar and at the Committee, it was considered the best approach was to determine if alterations to the Code of Conduct might be appropriate. It was agreed evidence and analysis would need to be collected on the effectiveness of the current code, along with investigation of the codes and procedures of other authorities to determine if these were more suitable and effective. It was also noted that as many towns and parishes in Wiltshire utilized the Wiltshire Council Code of Conduct wholly or in part for their own codes, they would need to be consulted once the Committee had arrived at its own conclusions, should alterations or additions be recommended.

Resolved:

1)    To task the Monitoring Officer with investigating the effectiveness of the Code of Conduct Complaints Procedure by collecting and analysing evidence on complaints received by Wiltshire Council, and to examine the Codes and procedures at other local authorities, and to bring a set of recommendations on any proposed changes to the Committee at its meeting on 21 January 2015.

2)    To ask the Monitoring Officer to liaise with colleagues in other Local Authorities to lobby the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for a change in the legislation to permit further sanctions, as agreed by a council’s Standards Committee, to be imposed in the event of a breach of a Code if deemed appropriate.

3)    To recommend that the decisions of Review and Hearing Sub-Committees be made publicly available, except where relevant matters remained ongoing and subject to confidentiality, but to leave the final decision to each Sub-Committee.