Held at Ryedale House, Malton on Thursday, 3 April 2008
Present
Councillors Cussons & Mrs De Wend Fenton
Mr Hamilton - Independent Member (In the Chair)
Mrs G De Barr - Parish Representative
Mr C Langley - Independent Member
Mr H Spencer - Parish Representative
In Attendance
Mrs A Adnitt and A Winship.
Minutes
503 Apologies for Absence
Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Aslett,Cottam and Maud and Mrs Baker.
504 Minutes
The minutes of a last meeting of the Standards Committee heldon
24 January 2008 were presented.
Resolved
That the minutes of a meeting of theStandards Committee held on 24 January 2008 be approved and signedby the Chairman as a correct record.
505 Urgent Business
The Chairman declared that there were two items of urgentbusiness to be dealt with as a matter of urgency by virtue ofSection (100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 as applied byregulation 7 of the Relevant Local Authorities (StandardsCommittee) Regulations as amended:
(i) Press Release published on 3 April 2008 from Mr JohnHealey the Local Government Minister.
(ii) Applications for dispensation from Members of HaromeParish Council
506 Declarations of Interest
No declarations of interest were received.
507 Standards Board for England Bulletin37
The Council Solicitor submitted a report (previouslycirculated) the purpose of which was to inform Members of theCommittee of the latest Standards Board Bulletin 37.
A copy of the Bulletin published on the 22 February 2008 wasappended to the report.
The Council Solicitor reported that the following items wereworthy of note:
- The main provisions concerning the ethical framework that hadrecently been brought into force.
- Examples of good practice in publicising the local assessmentof complaints.
- Information on prejudicial interests and setting theauthority’s annual budget.
- An introduction to the new Chief Executive.
Members were advised that the next Annual Assembly of theStandards Committee was to be held on the 13/14th October 2008, andwere asked to inform the Monitoring Officer if they wished toattend.
Resolved
That the report be noted.
508 Local Assessment
The Council Solicitor submitted a report (previouslycirculated) in order to consider the necessary changes to theCouncil's Constitution required for the Standards Committee todischarge its new Local Assessment function in relation to dealingwith complaints of misconduct against Members and other functionsunder the provisions of the Local Government and Public Involvmentin Health Act 2007.
Members were reminded that the new Act introduced a frameworkof significant changes to the process of handling Standardsallegations against Members of local authorities. These changesincluded the devolution of the handling of such allegations fromthe Standards Board of England to individual local authorities’Standards Committees.
In order to carry out the Local Assessment function changes,it would be necessary to change the current structure of theStandards Committee, to include sub committees consisting of atleast three Members. It was proposed that these sub committeesshould include one Member of the Council, one Independent Memberand one Parish Representative. They would conduct an assessment anda local hearing following the receipt of a report from theMonitoring Officer.
When considering any complaints regarding Parish Councillors,a Parish representative of the Committee would be required toattend. The current number of two Parish Councillors may causeissues if there was a review of the decision, or if a conflict ofinterest arose. Therefore it was recommended that the Parishrepresentation on the Standards Committee be increased from two tothree.
A large amount of information on both the size and make up ofthe Committee and the initial local assessment process was includedin the report which was discussed at length.
The Chairman was of the opinion that an amendment was requiredin relation to item 16 of the terms of reference shown at AnnexB.
Item 16 referred to “Investigating non-attendence ofindividual Members, with powers to withhold payment of allowancesin appropriate cases”. Members were of the opinion that it would bemore approriate to change “investigating” to “Monitoring”.
Resolved
That Council be recommended to resolve:
- To suspend in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 24.1,Council Procedure Rule 24.2 in Part 4 (Part1) (Meetings andProceedings of Council) during consideration of this item to ensureany Motion to adopt the recommendations of this report was notadjourned without discussion to the next ordinary meeting.
- To adopt of the revised Article 8 of the Constitution as setout in Annex A of the report (amendments for adoption shown initalics);
- To adopt the revised functions of the Standards Committee inthe Councils’ Constitution set out at Annex B (amendments foradoption shown in italics); With the amendment to the wording inItem 16 “investigating“ to “monitoring”, and the deletion of thewords “With powers to withhold payment of the allowances inappropriate cases”.
- To adopt the terms of reference of the Standards ReferralsSub-Committee as set out in the report at 4.22, with the additionof the following words “The Standards Referals Sub Committee shallappoint a Chairman for the meeting at each meeting as the firstitem of business.
- That Parish Councillor P Lerew be made a full Member of theStandards Committee for a period of four years as recommended bythe Yorkshire Local Councils Association.
509 Referrals Policy for LocalAssessment
The Council Solicitor submited a report (previouslycirculated) the purpose of which was to consider a draft referralspolicy for Local Assessment.
Members were reminded of the current system of assessingcomplaints of misconduct against Members, where complaints arereceived centrally by the Standards Board for England. Thereferrals unit then aimed to make an initial decision about thecomplaint within ten days using their criteria. Should theStandards Board decide not to refer the complaint for futherinvestigation, the complainant has a right to have that decisionreviewed. The complainant should make this request within 30 daysof the referral decision, by writing to the Chief Executive of theStandards Board for England.
The Standards Committee, or assessment sub-committee wouldneed to consider the same points that the Standards Board doesunder the current regime, regarding whether to refer a complaintfor investigation. However each local authority would have todevelop its own set of assessment criteria to decide whether apossible breach of the Code warranted further investigation or notbased on guidance from the Standards Board, and their own localcircumstances.
The Committee was advised that the Standards Board for Englandproposed to prepare and publish guidance to Standards Committees onhow to conduct Local Assessment. In the meantime, they had provideda statement on the criteria which they apply to the process. Thestatement was appended to the report.
A discussion followed and Members were of the opinion that itwould be prudent to use the statement provided by the StandardsBoard of England as a basis for making local assessment decisionsuntil such time as further guidance becomes available.
Resolved
That the report be noted, and theCommittee adopt the draft referrals policy as a basis for makingLocal Assessment decisions subject to the receipt of furtherguidance from the StandardsBoard of England.
510 Urgent Business
Resolved
That the following two items of urgentbusiness be dealt with as a matter of urgency by virtue of Section100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 as applied byregulation 7 of the Relevant Local Authorities (StandardsCommittee) Regulations 2001 as amended as they were decided by theChairman to be urgent.
511 Press Release from Local GovernmentMinister
The Council Solicitor updated Members on a press release thathad recently been received from Mr John Healey the Local GovernmentMinister.
Members were advised that the press release gave details ofthe responses to the recent consultation exercise, and it wasproposed that Local Authority Standards Committee Members wouldhave the authority to impose a six month suspension penalty atlocal hearings.
Resolved
That the report be received
512 Application for dispensation from Harome ParishCouncil
The Council Solicitor advised that he had received anapplication for dispensation from the following Members of HaromeParish Council for a period of three years,
(i) Mr Trevor Andrews
(ii) Mr C G Pickard
(iii) Mr Edward Wardle
More than fifty percent of the Members of the Parish Councilwere involved directly or indirectly with the Harome Village HallCommittee and therefore had a Personal and Prejudicial interestwhenever the agenda included an item relating to the Harome VillageHall Committee Association.
The Standards Committee concluded that in all thecircumstances of the code, it was approriate to grant adispensation to Parish Council Members applying for thedispensation.
Resolved
The Standards Committee considered that itwas appropriate to Grant a dispensation to the applicants havingregard to the fact that the transaction of the business of theParish Council would, on each occasion on which the dispensationwould apply, be otherwise be impeded because the numbers of Membersof the Harome Parish Council that were prohibited fromparticipating in the business of the Council exceeded 50% of thoseMembers that are entitled to participate.