Minutes:
The Chair of the Committee together with the Director of Law and Corporate Governance in his capacity as Monitoring Officer had attended the fourth Annual Assembly of Standards Committees which had been held in Birmingham on the 5th and 6th September, 2005. The Director of Law and Corporate Governance submitted a report setting out the key issues, messages and lessons which had emerged from the plenary sessions, workshops and presentations they had attended during the Annual Assembly.
The Chair drew attention to the views expressed by Sir Alistair Graham, Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life who had been critical about the current requirement for all complaints to be referred to the Standards Board for England. Sir Alistair had advocated that there should be much more devolution to local Standards Committees and he acknowledged that the current system discredited/devalued the role of the Committees. He had further advocated that Standards Committees should be chaired by an independent member and that independent members should be in the majority on such Committees.
The Chair reported that the Director of Law and Corporate Governance had been asked by the Standards Board to speak at the Assembly on the Council’s experience of conducting local investigations. His address had been well received and had been very informative for those delegates who had had little or no experience of conducting local investigations who were in the majority.
During the Assembly, the Chief Executive of the Standards Board for England had summarised the Board’s recommendations to Ministers on the review of the Local Code of Conduct which had been drawn up having regard to the results of consultation carried out earlier in the year and to which the Committee had responded. A copy of the Board’s recommendations was submitted and the Director of Law and Corporate Governance commented on each in turn.
Resolved - That the report be noted.