Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr P Gomm.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2022, copy attached.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 17 March 2022 were agreed as a correct record.

Members to declare any interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Glenn Watson

The Committee received the Annual Review of the Code of Conduct and Complaints procedure. The Committee had oversight of Member Code of Conduct Complaints both for this Council and for parish and town councils. The report provided an annual review of the complaints received during 2021/22 and of the effectiveness of the arrangements for handling them. The report addressed concerns and queries raised by the Committee during the year, which included greater transparency about the timeliness and nature of member code of conduct complaints.

The following points were made by the Principal Governance Officer:-

·         The Committee noted in the Autumn that complaints had not always moved on, during the year, as swiftly as envisaged within the procedures. Partly this was due to resourcing, which was supplemented early in the New Year. It was also noted that the earliest stages of the process were important. There was an essential element of information exchange at these stages: clarifying the complaint, ensuring that the person complained about had an opportunity to respond; and the complainant then being asked if they were satisfied or not.

·         Only one breach of the Code was formally found; and the average time taken to complete a case was as follows; average time taken for Buckinghamshire councillors (7 complaints 0 breaches) - 2.5 weeks, and for Parish/Town councillors (27 complaints, 1 breach) -5 weeks

·         Other than one town council complaint (raised by seven complainants), which reached Stage 3, all other complaints were concluded at either Initial Assessment or Stage 1.

·         The most alleged breach was against the principle of ‘Respect’; that a councillor failed to demonstrate respect to an individual or to the community. When looking at information provided by the Standards of Public Life Committee 83-85% of Councils which had complaints said that at least one or two of those had been about the principle of respect in the January 2019 report. The Local Government Association (LGA) guidance stated that respect could be quite subjective. The next largest trigger for a complaint had been a concern about member interests.

·         Only eight complaints were currently live, all relating to parish and town councils. Seven of these allegations related to one parish councillor, over four separate matters. They were being taken together and were currently at Stage 2. The eighth was an outstanding matter from 2021/22 which would shortly be concluded within Stage 1.

·         Comparatively, the LGA guidance indicated a target of 10 days for Stage 1 and 5 days to review the comments of the subject member. Buckinghamshire Council’s target was 20 days to enable a thorough engagement in the first stage of the investigation although this was balanced against the need to be swift as a complaint can be damaging to the reputation of the subject member. It was important that procedures were proportionate. Officers therefore intended to carry out a benchmarking exercise against a range of other authorities’ procedures to identify if there were changes that could be made to timeframes or the approach generally. The outcome  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Nick Graham

The Committee received a report on the proposed updates to the Council’s constitution to allow for better and more transparent decision making. Under s9P Local Government Act 2000 the Council was required to prepare and keep up to date a Constitution containing the standing orders of the Council and such other information as was required or was desirable. Buckinghamshire Council’s Constitution was effective as from 1 April 2020 and was regularly reviewed to ensure the Council’s operation was properly supported and governed by the Constitution. The last review took place in April 2021.

Oversight of the Constitution was shared between the Audit and Governance Committee and the Standards and General Purposes Committee. The power to change the Constitution was reserved to full Council via recommendation from the Standards and General Purposes Committee. The Monitoring Officer also had delegated authority to make amendments to ensure the Council conducted itself lawfully, and minor amendments where appropriate.

A Constitution Members Working Group consisting of the Chairmen and Vice- Chairmen of both the Audit and Governance Committee and the Standards and General Purposes Committee had met a number of times to consider proposed changes and provided initial comments to help inform the review of the Constitution as required by full Council.

During discussion the following points were noted:-

·         A Member expressed concern about the high level text used in Appendix 1 of the report. The Service Director Legal and Democratic Services reported that the changes were set out in principle to allow drafting of the proposed changes to take account of member feedback, further legal input or ensure other affected parts of the Constitution could be amended accordingly. It was therefore recommended that the Monitoring Officer determined the final wording of the in-principle proposals and any associated/incidental amendments with the approval of the Constitution Working Group, and to then change the Constitution accordingly together with any other necessary incidental amendments.

·         The Member then further expressed concern about the change to Community Boards which was to provide a comprehensive Terms of Reference for Community Boards to include provision for membership in the Constitution.  The Service Director Legal and Democratic Services reported that the framework document for Community Boards had been formulated and the terms of reference would be drafted in accordance with that practice and enshrined in the Constitution therefore there would be no change to the current working of Community Boards. The Constitution was constantly under review and any changes could be made in the forthcoming year if there were any concerns about the drafting. Another Member commented that Community Boards did operate on a different basis across Buckinghamshire and it would be good to find the optimal model. Concern was expressed about the transparency of the budgetary process which could be undertaken via email but then still had to go through a process with the Cabinet Member for Communities with no recall back to the Board. The review of the terms of reference was a big piece of work as the Community Boards  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

On 17 March, the Committee agreed a draft submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England on a pattern of wards. In doing so, the Committee also recommended Full Council on 27 April to endorse the draft proposal for final submission to the Commission. 

This item is simply to update the Committee that the draft submission was made to the Commission ahead of the 4 April consultation deadline. A copy of the submission is at Appendix 1.  The Committee also agreed that the Electoral Review Working Group should continue to meet throughout the remaining stages of the electoral review. This is so that the Group could continue to play a useful cross-party role in refining the proposals in those respects where the Committee agreed further work was needed; as well as advising the Committee by working alongside the Commission during its own information gathering phase and in considering the Commission’s own proposal, due to be consulted upon between July and September.

The Committee is recommended to endorse the proposed meeting dates for the Electoral Review Working Group: 

12 May 2022

16 June 2022

25 July 2022 (Monday)

11 August 2022

8 September 2022

On 17 March, the Committee agreed a draft submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England on a pattern of wards. In doing so, the Committee also recommended that Full Council on 27 April endorse the draft proposal for final submission to the Commission. 

The draft submission was made to the Commission ahead of the 4 April consultation deadline. The Committee had also agreed that the Electoral Review Working Group should continue to meet throughout the remaining stages of the electoral review. This was so that the Group could continue to play a useful cross-party role in refining the proposals in those respects where the Committee had agreed further work was needed; as well as advising the Committee by working alongside the Commission during its own information gathering phase and in considering the Commission’s own proposal, due to be consulted upon between July and September.

The Committee agreed the proposed meeting dates for the Electoral Review Working Group as follows: 

12 May 2022

16 June 2022

25 July 2022 (Monday)

11 August 2022

8 September 2022

To consider the Work Programme.

The draft Work Programme for 2022/23 was noted.

An update was given on the Election Petition challenging  the results of the Totteridge and Bowerdean ward election held on 6 May 2021 by an unsuccessful candidate. There was a hearing in the High Court on 29 September 2021 following which the petitioner had been considering what action they would like to take. Respondents to the petition had subsequently applied for the petition to be dismissed and a hearing would be heard at the beginning of May 2022 to consider the application for dismissal. The Committee would be updated once the hearing had taken place.

14 July 2022 – provisional

20 October 2022 – provisional

8 December 2022 – provisional

13 April 2023 – provisional

The dates of next meetings were noted as follows subject to approval at Full Council:-

14 July 2022 – provisional

20 October 2022 – provisional

8 December 2022 – provisional

13 April 2023 – provisional