Agenda item

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Nick Graham/ Glenn Watson

The Committee received a report on Member Code of Conduct complaints that were opened and/or closed during Quarter 1 (April to June 2022).  As previously requested, the updates included an indication of the source of the complaint (e.g. public, fellow councillor) and of the nature of the alleged behaviour.

The report also informed the Committee of the outcome of a recent benchmarking exercise during which the Council’s arrangements were compared with those adopted by other unitary authorities and the Local Government Association’s (LGA) best practice guidance.  This indicated that the Council’s ‘Initial Assessment’ stage was lacking a defined timescale, although in practice, the Council normally conformed with the 15-day timeframe recommended by the LGA.

Annex 1 to the Committee report contained information on complaints open or closed within Quarter 1 and relating to Parish and Town Councils.  Annex 2 contained similar information relating to Buckinghamshire Council.  Officer provided a summary of the complaints.  3 of the 4 Parish complaints had related to the same instance and while no breaches had been found and the complaints had been closed, 3 further complaints about this Parish Council/Councillor were currently in progress.

Two complaints had been raised about a Buckinghamshire Councillor during Quarter 1.  Both related to the same person and the same incident.  In both cases, the complainant had been a fellow Member of the Council.  Both had been closed at the Initial Assessment stage as the context suggested that no Code principle was likely to have been breached.

Annex 3 set out the complaints that were currently open, for either tier of local government.  This showed four complaints currently open. Three relate to the same council and councillor and were at Stage 3 (Investigation). The other was currently at Stage 1 to determine the facts of the case and whether any informal resolution is possible.  Officer reported that another complaint had been received from within the same council about the same incident, which was also at Stage 1. This made 5 complaints currently open at the time of the meeting.

Members were informed that on Monday 4 July 2022, the Deputy Monitoring Officer had given a presentation to the local Association of Parish and Town Councils on the handling of member code of conduct complaints to acquaint parish and town councillors and their clerks on the nature of the complaints process.  This had undertaken as part of the Council’s ongoing commitment to raising awareness of Code of Conduct matters among local councils.

Section 3 of the Committee report included information comparing the Buckinghamshire Council’s arrangements for dealing with Code complaints against the LGA guidance and the arrangements adopted by other unitary authorities.  While principal councils (i.e. not parish/town councils) were legally required to adopt arrangements for dealing with Member Code of Conduct complaints, the law did not specify the format of such arrangements and it was for each council to determine them.  The Council’s arrangements consisted of 4 parts as detailed at paragraph 3.4 of the Committee report.

Annex 4 set out a comparison between this Council’s Arrangements and those proposed by the LGA and those adopted by ten other unitary councils.  The only clear point of difference between the Council and the LGA guidance was that Buckinghamshire had not adopted a particular timeframe for completing the Initial Assessment (triaging).  The LGA suggested 15 working days. Other authorities surveyed show a range between 10-20 working days. In practice, a review of Buckinghamshire Council cases showed that the majority were completed within 10-15 working days.

Five of the 10 unitary authorities and the LGA guidance effectively blended the Council’s current Stages 1 (informal resolution) and 2 (determination whether to investigate) together.  In separating these out, Buckinghamshire Council was giving transparency to the kinds of considerations involved.  However, in practice this did not mean that Buckinghamshire had a lengthier process, those authorities that merged these stages either did so by means of a similar timeframe (40 days) or were open-ended as to the timeframe.  Overall, the Buckinghamshire Council’s timescales and processes were consistent with the best practice guidance of the LGA and included all the aspects that the LGA recommended in practice.

Members considered the report and commented:

-                      That they believed the Council should set a target (perhaps 15 days in line with LGA Guidance) for completing the initial Assessment (triaging).

-                      That the information reported showed the importance of training on the Code for all Members, although the Council couldn’t compel Parishes to do so.

-                      That, if possible, it would be helpful for the Committee to have information on the number of Parishes for which multiple complaints were received, although it might not be possible to publicly identify specific Councils.  Members would be appreciative of whatever information Officers could provide although it was also felt by some that the Council currently struck a good balance in mentioning Parishes when reporting information to the Committee.

Members were informed that the subject of complaints were not usually notified of the complaint at the initial assessment stage.  An explanation was provided on why some of the complaints at Annex 3 had not been finalised within 6 months. 

RESOLVED –

(1)               That the Member Code of Conduct complaints report for Quarter 1 (April to June 2022) as at Annexes 1-2 be NOTED.

(2)               That the current open Member Code of Conduct complaints (Annex 3) be NOTED.

(3)               That the benchmarking information which had reviewed the Council’s Member Code of Conduct complaints arrangements against comparative unitary authorities and the LGA’s best practice guidance be NOTED.