Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Jayne Kelly, Simon Smith and David Lindley.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they may have in the business on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

Members will be asked to note the Terms of Reference for the Standards Committee as set out in the Council’s Constitution (page 67).

https://www.leicester.gov.uk/media/ud2pyqg5/our-constitution-july-2021.pdf

The Monitoring Officer submitted a copy of the Terms of Reference for the Standards Committee and its sub-committees.

NOTED:

The Terms of Reference for the Standards Committee and its sub-committees.

To note the Membership of the Standards Committee 2021-22 as below:

Councillors:

Chair Councillor Dr Barton

Vice Chair Councillor Shelton

Councillor Dr Moore

Councillor Rae Bhatia

Independent Members:

Ms Fiona Barber

Mr Mike Galvin

Ms Jayne Kelly

Mr Simon Smith

Ms Alison Lockley

Standing Invitees:

Mr Michael Edwards – Independent Person

Mr David Lindley – Independent Person

NOTED:

The membership of the Standards Committee for the 2021-22 municipal year as below:

Councillors:

Chair: Councillor Dr Barton

Vice-Chair: Councillor Shelton

Councillor Dr Moore

Councillor Rae Bhatia

Independent Members:

Ms Fiona Barber

Mr Mike Galvin

Ms Jayne Kelly

Ms Alison Lockley

Mr Simon Smith

Standing Invitees:

Mr Michael Edwards (Independent Person)

Mr David Lindley (Independent Person)

The Monitoring Officer to report that following the meeting of Annual Council on 29^th April 2021 the dates of the Standard Committee meetings for 2021-22 were confirmed.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 26^th April 2022 at 5.30pm

NOTED:

            The dates of Standard Committee meetings for 2021-22 as follows:

·         Monday 8^th November 2021

·         Tuesday 26^th April 2022

All meetings to commence 5.30pm unless otherwise notified.

The minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee, held on 1^st October 2019, are attached and Members are asked to confirm that they are correct.

AGREED:

That the minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 1^st October 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record.

Members to receive details of the LGA recommended model Code of Conduct and associated guidance.

Members will be asked to discuss and consider whether the Council should look to change its own Code of Conduct in light of the guidance.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report providing details of the LGA recommended Model Councillor Code of Conduct and associated guidance.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the item and reminded Members of the previous discussion following the Committee of Standards in Public Life (CSPL) review into Local Government Ethical Standards and the recommendations that flowed from that report which had led to the Local Government Association (LGA) developing and publishing a Model Councillor Code of Conduct.

The Monitoring Officer advised that whilst there was still no formal government response to the CSPL best practice recommendations this committee had discussed those 13 recommendations at its last meeting and had audited itself and were comfortable about how the council were performing against those. The Monitoring Officer informed that he had also fed back nationally on that self-audit, making the point that national legislation would be necessary for some of the issues raised to be addressed.

Members noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had brought up interesting themes partly reflected in the model code and perhaps now overtaken by events, however it was crucial that the public had confidence in member conduct. The issue of lobbying and lobbying through media and social media was mentioned and noted that although the model code did not talk much about lobbying it was an issue that a parliamentary committee was watching. It was also noted that there was increased emphasis on robust provisions for protection against bullying and harassment arising from recent movements and campaigns such as “Me Too” and “Black Lives Matter” so the recommendation to move from more passive to active duty to root out unfairness or harassment was encouraging.

The Monitoring Officer explained the model code was a template for local authorities to adopt as a whole and/or with amendments taking account of local circumstances.

Members discussed the recommended model aligned to the guidance and reflected on insights and comparisons to the current code of conduct.

Regarding the general principles of councillor conduct, the Nolan principles were well enshrined and embedded in the council’s code of conduct. The council’s code also added three more principles which went beyond Nolan. It was felt best to retain the 10 principles that underpin the council’s code of conduct and for those to be set out in a clean and easy to read way then perhaps at a later point behaviour around those principles could be defined.

In terms of the application of the code and the distinction of conduct when acting on local authority business or on personal matters, Members discussed the issue of individuals being recognised and approached as councillors in their daily outgoings and also the misuse of council resources such as letter headed paper for private or political purposes. The Monitoring Officer advised that the Localism Act gave strict definition to when a councillor was on duty and that gave protection to councillors too, allowing them to express themselves as a private citizen, it was also noted that there were rules in place regarding misuse of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

Members to receive an overview of complaints received by the Monitoring Officer since the last meeting.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report providing an update on complaints received against councillors since the last meeting.

Members noted that this information was usually circulated as routine however due to the Covid-19 pandemic it had been a while since this had been discussed as a committee.

The Monitoring Officer advised that an additional column was now included to show reparation/lessons learnt and for the benefit of any lay reader there was a note to reflect that there was more work than just these complaints listed however, complainants were often very vague and more specific detail had to be sought. Members agreed that it was not fair to subject a councillor to a complaints process if a complainant was vague and not specific.

The Monitoring Officer advised there were several complaints made during the pandemic and specific to lockdown and the point was made the code of conduct was not an all-encompassing document. Many people had written to say they felt let down by their councillor and while that was important it was not a code of conduct issue because the conduct that was complained about was not conducted in their capacity as Councillors but as private individuals. The Monitoring Officer had also received several party political type complaints following-on from allegations that individual Councillors had failed to show leadership by their conduct during the pandemic.

In terms of social media related complaints, it was noted this was an area where the question of whether a councillor was on or off duty at the time of posting was more difficult to determine. Members discussed the issues around using social media accounts and it was suggested that if a councillor had a verified account and used their council account it made them liable for any inappropriate posts. Another issue highlighted with social media was that often councillors referred to the fact they were a councillor in their profile or used a verified account for all types of business and personal messaging and people could often be seen blending their private and public façade. This posed the question of whether they should always be seen to be on duty or only expressly when they say they are acting as a councillor. Members recognised it was a difficult area but were satisfied the councils guidance on social media was regularly reviewed and did advise caution.

Members welcomed the layout of the report and agreed the information provided was helpful. The Monitoring Officer and Independent Persons were thanked for their work and sensitive handling of these matters.

RESOLVED:

That the draft bi-annual report on complaints received end June 2019 to end June 2021 be brought to the next meeting.

None notified.

For the purpose of dealing with items on the agenda as appropriate.

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO NOTE

Under the law, the Committee is entitled to consider certain items in private.  Members of the public will be asked to leave the meeting when such items are discussed.

The Committee is recommended to consider the following reports in private on the grounds that they contain ‘exempt’ information as defined by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, as amended and consequently that the Cabinet makes the following resolution:-

“that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following reports in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because they involve the likely disclosure of 'exempt' information, as defined in the Paragraphs detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and taking all the circumstances into account, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Paragraph 1

Information relating to any individual.

Paragraph 2

Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

Paragraph 7c

The deliberations of a standards committee or of a sub-committee of a standards committee established under the provisions of Part 3 of the Local Government Act 2000 in reaching any finding on a matter referred under the provisions of section 60(2) or (3), 64(2), 70(4) or (5) or 71(2) of that Act.

The next scheduled meeting of the Standards Committee will take place on Tuesday 26^th April 2022 at 5.30pm

There being no further business the meeting closed at 7.18pm.