Report of the Monitoring Officer.

The Council was required to deal with complaints made against its Members under its approved Ethical Framework.

In order to assist with the effective administration of standards complaints, the Committee, as part of its monitoring role, was invited to consider the nature and handling of complaints received pursuant to the Members’ Code of Conduct.

A report by the Head of Legal and Member Services and Monitoring Officer informed that the process for the administration of standards complaints was undertaken in accordance with the Protocol for Dealing with Member Complaints which had been approved by the Committee and the Council.  Attached to his report at Appendix 1 was a summary of standards complaints made under the Members’ Code of Conduct between 1 April 2014 and 1 July 2015.  The Committee noted that during this period 11 complaints had been made.  It also noted the current status of each one.

The Ethical Framework required complaints to be dealt with confidentiality (unless permitted by the Protocol) and, therefore, it was not possible to provide extensive details in respect of each complaint. 

A Member raised concerns that the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources was not in attendance at the meeting as he wanted to discuss with him the fact that the agenda for this meeting had been incorrectly published on the website.  It had then been unpublished following representations made by him, amended and then republished.  The Member further informed that he was the subject of a complaint (Case Ref 11) and had not been told that it was referred for investigation.  He had spoken to the Strategic Director about this and been assured that it had been an error.  He queried if there were any other errors in the paperwork and reported that eight months after the complaint had been lodged an investigation had not yet been carried out.  The Member informed the Committee that it had put in place a Protocol with timescales that were not being adhered to.

Another Member informed that he was disappointed that the Strategic Director was not in attendance.  However, another Member reminded the Committee that it was not in a position to make a judgement on the particular issue but informed that she was concerned about the timescale.

The Head of Legal and Member Services and Monitoring Officer took responsibility for the error and told the Committee that it had been in the Summary of Standards Complaints (Appendix 1) and he apologised for it, informing that he had made sure it was corrected and the agenda was republished within the five clear working days laid down.  The Strategic Director was only dealing with the specific complaint that had been referred to.

A Member made reference to the number of complaints received about Members failing to treat others with respect and queried how effective where the sanctions that were used in respect of the complaints that were upheld.  The Member was aware that training was provided but also queried how effective it had been.

The Head of Legal and Member Services and Monitoring Officer informed the Committee that he would discuss the comments that Members had made with the Strategic Director.  The complaints process was now faster than in the past but sometimes there were legitimate reasons why complaints took longer to conclude. However, he accepted the need for complaints to be dealt with more quickly.  The Committee’s attention was drawn to the fact that despite a number of complaints having been made about lack of respect, six had not been upheld, three had been dealt with through alternative means and two were ‘live’ cases.

A Member asked what happened when it had been found that a Member had treated someone with a lack of respect and a local resolution had been achieved and then the Member treated someone else again in the same way.  The Head of Legal and Member Services and Monitoring Officer responded that he would take the fact that the Member had not learnt a lesson into account and if, appropriate, refer the subsequent complaint for investigation rather than for local resolution.

A Member reminded the Committee that the Working Group had drawn up a Protocol and a set of timescales to deal with Members’ complaints which had been agreed by the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee and the Council.  He also informed that his view was that Standards complaints could be referred for investigation and Members could be found guilty of the behaviours complained of but if the behaviour did not constitute a criminal act, there were no significant sanctions the Council could impose so it was pointless for a Working Group to be established to look at this.

The Head of Legal and Member Services confirmed that the Localism Act 2011 changed the previous Ethical Framework that was rigid and onerous to administer.  Although a Council no longer was required to have a Standards Committee, the Council had agreed to have one and had extended its remit to include Constitutional Oversight.  The Committee in turn had established a Working Group to assist it in its work. 

The Council had developed and introduced a Members’ Code of Conduct and Protocol for dealing with complaints made under the Code.  However, the Localism Act removed the power of the Council to suspend a Member for breach of the Code.  The power to suspend now rested with the Magistrates Courts.  A case could only be brought to the Magistrates Court by the Director of Public Prosecutions and it was considered unlikely that a criminal case against a Member would be brought unless an alleged significant offence was committed.  The powers of the Council were limited and ranged from Members being required to apologise through to training.  Members each year had the opportunity, through the Working Group to review the Code of Conduct and the Protocol to ensure it remained fit for purpose.

The Head of Legal and Member Services also informed that Group Leaders had signed up to the Protocol.  They were notified of any complaints against Members of their political group and were expected to promote better behaviour and conduct.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the summary of standards complaints set out at Appendix 1 to this report be noted;

(2)  the Committee puts on record its disappointment over the time it has taken to look at a particular complaint; and

(3)  the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources be requested to attend the next meeting of the Committee.