The Standards Committee and Constitution Review Working Party RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the Procedure for local Standards Committee hearings be approved and incorporated into the Constitution.
A copy of the local procedure is attached to this Agenda.
Decision:
Council RESOLVED that the Procedure for local Standards Committee Hearings, attached to the Agenda, be approved and incorporated into the Constitution.
Minutes:
Council RESOLVED that the Procedure for local Standards Committee Hearings, attached to the Agenda, be approved and incorporated into the Constitution.
6 Procedure for Local Standards Hearings PDF 91 KB
Deferred from previous meeting. The Deputy Monitoring Officer’s report is attached. Please see the comments from Cllr A Riley included under the previous item.
For decision.
Additional documents:
Decision:
With no members voting against, the Standards Committee RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the revised Procedure for Local Standards Hearings be adopted, replacing the existing Local Standards Hearings Procedure at Part 5 Section M of the Constitution, subject to the following amendments:
(a) Paragraph 1(a), first sentence: “’Councillor’ is to be taken to refer to the elected or co-opted member of the authority or to the parish councillor who is the subject of the allegation being considered by the Standards Committee, unless stated otherwise.”;
(b)
Paragraph 1(b), final sentence:
“…(which may be the Monitoring Officer, and
or his or her nominated
representative).”;
(c)
Paragraph 9(b), first sentence: “The Chairman
will ask the legal advisor Monitoring Officer
or the Democratic Services Officer to present his
report…”;
(d) Paragraph 9(b), footnote 9: add “continued overleaf”;
(e) Paragraph 9(c)(iii), final line: “…the Standards Committee should seek the advice of the Investigating Officer or the witness.”; and
(f) To remove the division between the procedure following an ESO’s report and those which follow a local investigation.
Minutes:
This local hearings procedure, like the local investigations procedure, had been referred to an extra-ordinary meeting of Standards Committee which had proven impossible to schedule and therefore the procedure was referred to this meeting. The Deputy Monitoring Officer explained that the Council had a local hearings procedure enshrined in the Constitution, but that this procedure had not been reviewed since the Constitution was written in 2001 and now required updating to incorporate more recent legislation. The draft procedure combined into one document the relevant legislation with Standards Board for England (SBE) guidance.
The Deputy Monitoring Officer, correcting a statement made by Councillor Mrs VM Trueman, confirmed that the previous Monitoring Officer had attended only as a witness at the first local hearing and had not fulfilled any other role during the pre-hearing process and subsequently; the Deputy Monitoring Officer had served as Monitoring Officer throughout that particular case.
The Democratic Services Officer agreed that she or her colleagues would present a pre-hearing process summary report if required.
With no members voting against, the Standards Committee RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the revised Procedure for Local Standards Hearings be adopted, replacing the existing Local Standards Hearings Procedure at Part 5 Section M of the Constitution, subject to the following amendments:
(a) Paragraph 1(a), first sentence: “’Councillor’ is to be taken to refer to the elected or co-opted member of the authority or to the parish councillor who is the subject of the allegation being considered by the Standards Committee, unless stated otherwise.”;
(b)
Paragraph 1(b), final sentence:
“…(which may be the Monitoring Officer, and
or his or her nominated
representative).”;
(c)
Paragraph 9(b), first sentence: “The Chairman
will ask the legal advisor Monitoring Officer
or the Democratic Services Officer to present his
report…”;
(d) Paragraph 9(b), footnote 9: add “continued overleaf”;
(e) Paragraph 9(c)(iii), final line: “…the Standards Committee should seek the advice of the Investigating Officer or the witness.”; and
(f) To remove the division between the procedure following an ESO’s report and those which follow a local investigation.
Mr M Farrar requested that the Standards Committee at its next ordinary meeting review the membership of the Parish Council Standards Sub-Committee, acknowledging that the Sub-Committee had not met for four years due to lack of business.
13 Procedure for Local Standards Hearings PDF 355 KB
For ratification.
Additional documents:
Decision:
DEFERRED |
consideration of the procedure for local standards hearings to an extra-ordinary meeting to be held before the end of October 2006. |
Minutes:
The Standards Committee
DEFERRED |
consideration of the procedure for local standards hearings to an extra-ordinary meeting to be held before the end of October 2006. |