Agenda item

Contact Officer: Nick Graham/ Glenn Watson

The Committee received a report which gave an overview of the Member Code of Conduct complaints that were opened and/or closed during Quarter 2 (July to September) this year. Of the 17 complaints considered in Quarter 2, no breach of the Code had been found thus far.

With regard to Parish and Town Councils six complaints were received between July and September. A seventh complaint would be the subject of a Hearing Sub-Committee meeting of this Committee at Stage 3. This would be convened shortly in accordance with the protocol agreed at the last meeting. Three complaints were closed within this period, none resulting in a breach. In all three, the matters complained of were more to do with the relevant council’s governance than the conduct of the individual. In a departure from recent trends, none of the parish/town council complaints received in Quarter 2 related to ‘disrespect’ and were more concerned with governance or other technical points.

Ten Buckinghamshire Council complaints were received and closed between July and September 2023. No breaches were found. As with parish/town complaints, there was a shift away from complaints about ‘respect’ to more technical or governance matters – hospitality provisions, data protection, non-response to emails. Perceived delay or nonresponse to emails by councillors was not in itself a Code of Conduct issue; unlike officers, councillors were not subject to particular rules on the timeframes or prioritisation of their correspondence.

On 7 September 2023, the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Association of Parish and Town Councils held its annual training event on Civility and Respect. The Principal Governance Officer gave a presentation on Buckinghamshire Council’s experience of handling parish/town council complaints over the past year.

It was reported at the last meeting that a Hughenden Parish Councillor, found to have breached the Code earlier this year, had not as yet discharged all of the sanctions imposed by the Parish Council. The sanctions had been recommended by this Council. At an Extraordinary Meeting of Hughenden Parish Council held on 26 September, the Council resolved to make a Code of Conduct complaint to the Monitoring Officer on the basis of apparent non-compliance with sanctions, alleging a breach of the Hughenden Parish Council’s Member Code of Conduct. The complaint had been received and was being considered by the Monitoring Officer.

A question was asked, which had been raised before, in how Buckinghamshire compared to similar unitary councils. The Principal Governance Officer replied that an officer was currently undertaking some research on this and once completed would be circulated to the Committee. Not all Unitary Councils publish details of their complaints. In relation to this another Member commented that many Councils were different in terms of size etc and therefore it was important to look at performance year on year. The important issue was continuous improvement and to reduce the number of complaints. She commented it would be helpful to have yearly comparisons on the volume and type of complaint which could then be broken down into unitary/parish/town council complaints. The Principal Governance Officer reported that he would provide this information as part of the annual review of code complaints. The Service Director also commented that the outcome was the important part to focus on rather than the number of complaints as some of these could be vexatious or localised to a particular issue which was contentious.

Clarification was sought on the register of gifts and hospitality and whether not declaring them was a breach of the code of conduct. The Principal Governance Officer reported that the obligation was on Members to register gifts and hospitality £50 or over within a specified time period. If a Member failed to do this it would be questionable under the Code of Conduct and a complaint could be pursued. If the value was less than £50 and it could be perceived that the offer was made as an inducement, it would be good practice to register this as well. It was the offer of it that was important to register even if the gift or hospitality was declined. This was in relation to the councillor role rather than a personal one.

RESOLVED that the Member Code of Conduct Complaints opened and closed in Quarter 2 (July to September 2023, Annexes 1 and 2) and those currently open be noted.