Meeting documents

The meeting noted that upon adoption of the new Code of Conduct and Arrangements for dealing with standards allegations by the Committee at its 31 July 2012 meeting, a review of these had been scheduled for six months hence.

This period had passed and changes could now be considered in light of operational experience.

Members looked through the complaints which had been received since the adoption of the new Code of Conduct and Arrangements, and the outcome of those that had been processed. It was noted that the majority of these had either shown no breach of the Code, or where there had been a potential breach, this had not been considered sufficiently serious to warrant investigation.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that though previous years had seen numerous complaints received, the previous 8 months since the change of regime had seen more still. It was evident that a training need at the parish council in respect of which the majority of these recent complaints had been received, existed.

The Meeting then turned its attention to the proposed amendment to the Code which was as follows:

·              In respect of Paragraph 4 of the Code which dealt with Other Interests, in other words those that were not disclosable pecuniary interests. It was suggested that paragraph 4.2.1 would benefit by the addition of the words "body or organisation" where indicated in bold type below, so that members were clear that where they had an association with a body or organisation this should be regarded by them as an Other Interest:  

"4.        Other Interests

4.1       In addition to the requirements of Paragraph 3, if you attend a meeting at which any item of business is to be considered and you are aware that you have a "non-disclosable pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest" in that item, you must make verbal declaration of the existence and nature of that interest at or before the consideration of the item of business or as soon as the interest becomes apparent. 

4.2       You have a "non-disclosable pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest" in an item of business of your authority where –

4.2.1   a decision in relation to that business might reasonably be regarded as affecting the well-being or financial standing of you or a member of your family or a person, body or organisation with whom you have a close association to a greater extent than it would affect the majority of the Council Tax payers, ratepayers or inhabitants of the ward or electoral area for which you have been elected or otherwise of the authority’s administrative area, or

4.2.2   it relates to or is likely to affect any of the interests listed in the Table in the Appendix to this Code, but in respect of a member of your family (other than a "relevant person") or a person with whom you have a close association and that interest is not a disclosable pecuniary interest."

Members suggested that the word ‘any’ be inserted in front of the words person, body or organisation in paragraph 4.2.1. of the code. This was endorsed by the Members present.

The Meeting then considered the proposed amendments to the Arrangements which were as follows:

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2. The Code of Conduct:  Paragraphs had been changed to show that these are available on website and also from Complaints Officer or Parish Clerk.

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Minor changes had been made to the first and third paragraphs to reflect Wycombe District Council procedures.

Addition of last sentence to third paragraph to advise that not every complaint would be referred for investigation and decisions would be made according to referral criteria.

Additional paragraph to advise that lengthy complaints material may take longer to be assessed.  Recent experience had shown that some complainants include large volumes of material - some of which was not relevant to the complaint or could have been summarised.

Items 4. What happens next? to 6. Stage 2: rewritten and replacement for existing procedure.

Criteria were now included for the Monitoring Officer to dismiss complaints at the initial stage in certain straightforward circumstances.

Members who are the subject of complaints had nearly always wished to see and consider the complaints made about them prior to assessment by the Monitoring Officer.  This applied even when Members were aware that the complaint may not have been assessed as serious enough to be investigated.  Complaints procedures from other councils had therefore been reviewed and it was felt that new procedure as set out was appropriate for this Council.  This included the opportunity for the subject Member to review the complaint at the initial stage and also provide their views on a suitable resolution.

The setting out of the procedure into Stages 1, 2 and 3 also provided further clarity for the benefit of the complainant and subject Member.

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Referral Criteria:  These were felt to be a useful addition for the benefit of the complainant, subject member, Monitoring Officer and Independent Person to clarify whether and under which circumstances the complaint would be referred for investigation.  It should be noted that some of these duplicate criteria were for the Monitoring Officer to dismiss at the initial stage, in order to leave scope for consultation with the Independent Person on the criteria if required.

Item 7 to Item 7.2:  There were no changes to existing procedures, other than re-numbering.

Item 7.3:  The first paragraph related to the possible actions of the Hearing Panel and as this Council received many Parish Council complaints; it was felt beneficial to separate the possible actions in the case of District Councillor or Parish Councillor referrals.

Items 7.4 to Item 10:  There were no changes to existing procedure.

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Item 11:  There was an additional paragraph to clarify that complaints can be withdrawn with the agreement of the Monitoring Officer.

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Appeals – additional information had been provided about LG Ombudsman jurisdiction as a result of a recent LGO decision.

The Monitoring Officer outlined a further proposed change in respect of Stage Three in that ‘In exceptional cases, where the Monitoring Officer and Independent Person consider it is appropriate to keep your identity confidential or disclosure of details of the complaint to the member might prejudice the investigation, the Monitoring Officer can  may delete your name and address from the papers given to the member, or delay notifying the member until the investigation has progressed sufficiently’. He also proposed a small change to the final paragraph of the Arrangements so that the end of the paragraph would now read: ‘the Ombudsman can only consider complaints made by members of the public or those made on their behalf – this does not include complaints made by town, parish or district councillors’. 

The Committee agreed that the proposed changes to the Code and Arrangements as featured in the report and further changes suggested at the meeting as featured above were in order and would make the processing of Standards Complaints in the Wycombe District more streamlined and efficient and as such should be recommended for adoption by Full Council.

Recommended: That the changes to the Members Code of Conduct and the Arrangements for dealing with Standards Allegations under the Localism Act 2011 as set out above and written into the revised Code and Arrangements in the attached Appendices A & B and as further amended at the Standards Committee Meeting of 26 March 2013 also as featured above be adopted.

The finalised new Code of Conduct and Arrangements for recommendation to Full Council, incorporating all of the above amendments are attached to these minutes as Attachments A & B respectively.