Meeting documents

It is recommended that:

1.    a Hearing Sub Committee be established to determine in consultation with an Independent Person whether a Member of the Authority has failed to comply with the Authority’s Code of Conduct and to recommend actions on behalf of the Overview and Audit Committee resulting from any such findings.

2.    three Members be appointed to the Hearing Sub Committee.

3.    an Appeals Sub Committee be established to adjudicate in consultation with an Independent Person on appeals from a Hearing Sub Committee on the grounds that:

a)    the Authority’s complaints procedure has been wrongly applied; or

b)    new evidence has come to light since the hearing which, if disclosed to the Hearing Sub Committee, may result in a different outcome; or

c)    the Hearing Sub Committee has misdirected itself in law.

               such as to result in an unfair decision.

4.    three Members not appointed to the Hearing Sub Committee be appointed to the Appeals Sub Committee.

Contact Officer:  Graham Britten (Director of Legal and Governance) – 01296 744441

The Chairman advised Members that there was no precedent at the Fire Authority for setting up a Hearing or Appeals Sub Committee, but Members would need to agree on the composition of both. Both Committees would be made up of three Members and an Independent Person and to clarify only Fire Authority Members would be eligible to vote. The Chairman was mindful of the political mix and also mindful of the fact that there were two Councils represented on this body and he would like to see a proportionate political balance and a proportionate balance across the Councils.

The Director of Legal and Governance advised Members that as the Chairman had indicated, there was no precedent for the Committee to need to establish either a Hearing or Appeals Sub Committees previously, although it was within the procedure that was adopted and approved by the full Authority in 2012.

The Director of Legal and Governance advised Members that recommendations 1 and 3 related to the Committee agreeing to appoint the two Sub Committees and recommendations 2 and 4 related to populating those Sub Committees with Members. The Committees must be governed by political balance and look at seats across the whole Authority. The report that went to the Authority AGM showed the percentages were Conservative 64.7%, (2 Conservatives on each Sub Committee) with Labour and Liberal Democrat at 11.7647% (eligible for 1 seat on either the Hearing or Appeals Sub Committee).

The Chairman was also mindful that these Committees would involve extra work for those Members involved and intended to cancel the December Overview and Audit Committee meeting and move the agenda to a subsequent meeting. The Chairman also advised that the Sub Committee meetings would be likely to take place in the evening, rather than during the day, if possible.

A Member asked what options would be open to the Hearings Committee if the Member was found in breach of the Code of Conduct and was advised that there were a suite of options. The first action would be to decide if the allegation was upheld, and if it was upheld, was it a breach of the Code of Conduct and then decide what sanctions to apply. There were very few sanctions available. The most severe sanction would be a recommendation up to a meeting of the full Authority that a Member should be removed from a Committee, or a Member if they had a special responsibility, would have that special responsibility taken away from them or there could be a recommendation that the Member undertakes further specific training in certain areas or training in terms of certain paragraphs of the Code of Conduct. The Authority under the current legislation had no power to suspend a Member from the Authority itself.

The Independent Person for the Hearing Sub Committee would be Maureen Briggs.

RESOLVED –

1. a Hearing Sub Committee be established to determine in consultation with an independent person whether a Member of the Authority has failed to comply with the Authority’s Code of Conduct and to recommend actions on behalf of the Overview and Audit Committee resulting from any such findings.
2. three members be appointed to the Hearing Sub Committee:

having been proposed by Councillor Glover and seconded by Councillor Clarke, that Councillor Watson be appointed to the Hearing Sub Committee;

having been proposed by Councillor Watson and seconded by Councillor Brunning, that Councillor Glover be appointed to the Hearing Sub Committee;

having been proposed by Councillor Watson and seconded by Councillor Brunning, that Councillor Exon be appointed to the Hearing Sub Committee.

3. an Appeals Sub Committee be established to adjudicate in consultation with an Independent Person on appeals from a Hearing Sub Committee on the grounds that:

a) the Authority’s complaints procedure has been wrongly applied; or

b) new evidence has come to light since the hearing which, if disclosed to the Hearing Sub Committee, may result in a different outcome; or

c) the Hearing Sub Committee has misdirected itself in law, such as to result in an unfair decision.

4. three Members not appointed to the Hearing Sub Committee be appointed to the Appeals Sub Committee:

having been proposed by Councillor Glover and seconded by Councillor Watson, that Councillor Clarke be appointed to the Appeals Sub Committee;

having been proposed by Councillor Watson and seconded by Councillor Glover, that Councillor Brunning be appointed to the Appeals Sub Committee;

having been proposed by Councillor Clarke and seconded by Councillor Brunning, that Councillor Huxley be appointed to the Appeals Sub Committee.

Members agreed to all of the above appointments unanimously.