Vicki Shaw, Head of Legal and Deputy Monitoring Officer introduced the report of the Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer that provided a summary of Standards complaints received under the Members’ Code of Conduct and Protocol for dealing with complaints against Members between 31 October 2019 and 31 October 2020. A summary of standards complaints was set out at Appendix 1 to the report.

The report informed that in order to assist with the effective administration of standards complaints, the Committee, as part of its monitoring role, is invited to consider the nature and handling of complaints received pursuant to the Members’ Code of Conduct.

The Head of Legal, Deputy Monitoring Officer apprised the Constitution and Standards Committee that all Local Authorities must have arrangements in place to deal with complaints against Elected Members, and procedures for dealing with such complaints in a confidential manner.

The report further informed that one complaint which was received in July 2019 and was still outstanding at the time of the last report to the Committee in November 2019 was investigated and referred to the Standards Panel on 4 December 2019. The Panel found that there had been a breach of the Code of Conduct and required a number of actions to be undertaken by the subject Member and the Monitoring Officer. The full decision was published on the Council website and all of the required actions have been undertaken by the Monitoring Officer and the subject Member.

The Head of Legal, Deputy Monitoring Officer further apprised the Committee that during the period under report five complaints had been received in respect of five Elected Members from five Individuals.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.