Agenda item

To receive a verbal update from the Deputy Monitoring Officer on the Standards Fifth Annual Assembly of Standards Committees.  The Chairman’s report to the Chief Executive of the 2005 Annual Assembly is attached for information. 

Due to the high demand for places at the Fifth Annual Assembly of Standards Committees, and limited Council resources, only the Deputy Monitoring Officer had been able to attend.  Copies of all the papers issued were available to members for collection and for download from the Standards Committee’s website.

Key points from the conference were:

·                      the revised Code of Conduct would be issued for consultation within the next few weeks with a consultation deadline of the end of December 2006.  An extra-ordinary meeting of Standards Committee would be arranged, almost certainly at short notice, to which all members were urged to attend.  Parliamentary approval was expected in January or February 2007 with the revised Code of Conduct in place in time for May elections and all local authorities would be expected to adopt it shortly afterwards;

·                      the Standards Board for England would be holding a series of twelve roadshows across the country in 2007 to re-launch the Code of Conduct and would be issuing a new training DVD;

·                      the Standards Board for England was lobbying the government for resources and the percentage of funds available to County and Metropolitan authorities was disproportionately high for the smaller number of cases involving their members compared to those involving District or Parish Councillors;

·                      guidance was expected on a local filtering process for complaints; and

·                      there was a perceived conflict of interest between the Standards Committee receiving notification of all complaints and also conducting hearings, which could be settled by establishment of separate sub-committees to filter and hear cases.

The Standards Committee’s first newsletter would be published shortly.  It would include a general advice page addressing the most common areas of concern raised by parish councillors and would invite questions, including anonymous questions, from district and parish councillors seeking guidance on planning issues, the Code of Conduct, declaring interests, etc.

The Standards Committee NOTED the comments made by the Deputy Monitoring Officer.