Minutes:
The Director of Legal, Democratic and Development Services recalled that in May this year the Committee had responded to two consultation papers, the first comprising draft Regulations issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) on the local investigation of allegations of misconduct and the second from the Standards Board for England (SBE) on proposed guidance to Monitoring Officers.
The ODPM had subsequently issued the Local Authorities’ (Code of Conduct) (Local Determination) (Amendment) Regulations 2004 (the 2004 Regulations) providing for the referral of allegations of misconduct to Monitoring Officers by Ethical Standards Officers and the SBE had published statutory guidance on how the Monitoring Officer should conduct his/her investigation and what steps the Standards Committee were required to go through to determine finally a matter.
The Director of Legal, Democratic and Development Services set out the key issues arising from the 2004 Regulations and the SBE guidance. He drew particular attention to the disparity in the powers to conduct investigations granted to Monitoring Officers compared with those of the Ethical Standards Officers. Although the authority was required to give the Monitoring Officer reasonable access to documents and provide advice/assistance, unlike the position in Wales, there was no requirement for Members, Officers or indeed members of the public to provide information or documentation. There were no sanctions in the 2004 Regulations for failure to co-operate with the Monitoring Officer which potentially put him/her in a difficult position. If the Monitoring Officer faced a lack of co-operation and was unable to complete an investigation then the only possible way forward was to request the Ethical Standards Officer to take the matter back. However this could not be guaranteed.
Members were informed that training on how the Standards Committee should conduct a hearing would be arranged in the early part of the New Year and that a further report would be submitted to the Committee’s next meeting on what constitutional changes needed to be made to ensure that the Committee would be able to conduct this part of its business in an efficient and effective manner.
Resolved – That the information report now submitted be noted.