Agenda item

The Democratic Services Lead introduced a report which provided the first annual on the Members’ register of interest and declarations of gifts & hospitality for the 2021/22 municipal year.

Section 29 of the Localism Act 2011 required that the Monitoring Officer establish and maintain a register of interest for Members of the authority, to ensure that the authority, public and any other interested parties know of any interests a councillor may have that might give rise to a conflict of interest.  The Councillors’ Code of Conduct in Part 5.1 of the Constitution set out the relevant interests that should be declared and disclosed in both the register and at meetings.  It was highlighted that Members were personally responsible for registering and declaring their interests.

The current procedure for registration of interest forms was outlined and activity in relation to the register and declarations at meetings since the start of the 2021/22 municipal year was summarised. Members were informed that following a review of the processes, areas for improvement had been identified as maintaining accuracy, compliance and ensuring declarations relating to outside bodies were up to date.

Members were reminded that the Council had also strengthened its transparency process relating to Gifts and Hospitality and that from June 2021 all registrations by Members had been published on each councillors webpage. Older declarations were maintained in a file held by democratic services and available for public inspection on request.

Since the start of the 21/22 municipal year no declarations were made for the receipt of gifts or hospitality over an estimated value of £50. However, the

Council was not complacent about the relatively low levels of declarations of gifts and hospitality and Members would be regularly reminded of their responsibilities under the Code of Conduct to declare any such matters.

Members of the committee asked about the report on councillors performance which usually came to committee and it was responded that this matter remained in the Audit & Corporate Governance Committee’s remit.

Resolved  - That the report be noted.