Agenda for Councillor Conduct Committee on Wednesday, 13th June, 2012, 7.30 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Room 2, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA. View directions

Items
No. Item

38.

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

Minutes:

Councillor Brett welcomed everyone to the meeting including Councillor Murphy as an observer and Lawrence Greenberg the former Chairman of the Standards Committee. 

 

There were no apologies for absence. 

39.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS pdf icon PDF 26 KB

Members of the Cabinet are invited to identify any personal or prejudicial interests relevant to items on the agenda. Please refer to the guidance note attached to the agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.  

40.

STANDARDS REGIME - NEW ARRANGEMENTS pdf icon PDF 52 KB

To receive a report from the Director of Finance, Resources & Customer Services on the standards regime and new arrangements for dealing with issues around councillor conduct.

(Report No.20)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Councillor Conduct Committee received three reports from John Austin, Assistant Director Corporate Governance, concerning the new arrangements to replace the standards regime.  These were:

 

  • A draft new Member Code of Conduct
  • A revised complaints process
  • Draft recruitment pack for the appointment of Independent Persons.

 

1.         Introduction

 

John Austin introduced his report as follows: 

 

  • The old regime including the whole framework, the Standards Board for England, the requirement for independent members and the investigative process for complaints, had been abolished. 

 

  • In its place, Councils were obliged to produce their own Member Code of Conduct, based on Nolan principles, but the need for Council’s to have their own Standards Committee had been removed. 

 

  • The new statutory instruments including details on disclosable interests had become law in the week preceding this meeting, but the guidance was yet to be published.  The new arrangements should be in place from 1 July 2012. 

 

  • All councils have had to devise new codes.  Several models were available, including from the Local Government Association and AcSES, the Council Monitoring Officers Professional Association. 

 

  • The Enfield Code had been adapted from the AcSES model, taking account of the old code, as well as the decisions made by Council in March, and the comments from last week’s meeting of the Member and Democratic Services Group. 

 

  • As both the Code and the process for considering complaints had been drafted without reference to the guidance, it will be necessary to review them once the guidance becomes available.  A formal review procedure will be put in place.

 

  • It was suggested that the draft code be circulated to the political groups for comment, before being formally adopted at full Council in July.  This will be subject to any later revisions which will also have to be agreed by Council. 

 

  • An amendment sheet was tabled proposing firstly that paragraph 2 on page 8 was deleted, because the previous test of bias does not appear in the new act, and secondly to delete the existing paragraph 2.5 on page 12 replacing it with:

 

“Failure to register a DPI (Disclosable Pecuniary Interest) is a criminal offence.  You must register all DPI relating to you, your spouse, civil partner or partner.  If a DPI arises in relation to your family member or person with whom you have a close association or personal relationship and you are aware that they have the interest you must disclose and register that DPI.  Failure to do so will be a breach of the code of conduct.”

 

2.         Comments on Code of Conduct

 

2.1             Failure to register a disclosable pecuniary interest will be a criminal offence.  Members were concerned to make clear the difference between what would be a criminal offence and what would be just a breach of the code.

 

2.2             The term “legal action” paragraph 3.2 (page 13) (e) covers more than just criminal legal action. 

 

2.3             The change to the paragraph 2.5 (page 12) suggested above has been made to make it clear that in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

41.

WORK PROGRAMME 2012/13 pdf icon PDF 17 KB

To consider and agree an outline work programme for the Committee during 2012/13

Minutes:

The Councillor Conduct Committee received a draft work programme for 2012/13. 

 

AGREED the work programme with the following additions and amendments:

 

1.         The code of conduct would be reviewed in March 2013 before the end of the municipal year.  An extra meeting of the committee would be arranged for this. 

 

2.                  Training would be provided for all members, including members of the Planning Committee, on the new arrangements.  A training schedule and content would be discussed at the October meeting.

 

3.                  A short item would be included on the agendas for each of the area forums, to inform the public about the changes.  This would be discussed as part of the Communication Strategy in October. 

 

4.                  The Committee Terms of Reference would be reviewed in January 2013 rather than October 2012 to allow more time for the changes to settle down. 

 

5.                  Member Training, on the principles of mediation, would be considered. 

42.

MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING OF THE STANDARDS COMMITTEE pdf icon PDF 37 KB

To receive the minutes of the last Standards Committee meeting held on the 5th March 2012.

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meeting of the Standards Committee held on Thursday 29 March 2012 were received and noted. 

43.

DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

To note the dates agreed for future meetings of the Councillor Conduct Committee. 

 

  • Wednesday 17 September 2012
  • Thursday 17 January 2013
  • Thursday 2 May 2013

Minutes:

The Committee noted the dates agreed for future meetings:

 

  • Wednesday 17 October 2012
  • Wednesday 16 January 2013 – changed from Thursday 17 January 2013
  • Thursday 2 May 2013

 

AGREED that an additional meeting would be arranged in March 2013 to review the Code of Conduct.