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Issue - meetings

Meeting: 09/11/2020 - Standards Committee (Item 5)

5 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STANDARDS COMMITTEE 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 183 KB

To submit the report of the Senior Solicitor (Corporate)  (attached).

 

Additional documents:

Decision:

To approve the annual report to be submitted to the Full Council on 3 December, subject to adding:-

·         a paragraph noting that every council, and every member of every council, has a role to uphold and promote a high standard of conduct in the public eye and to challenge inappropriate behaviour, be that with or without the Ombudsman's involvement.

·         an introduction and foreword by the Chair and the Monitoring Officer.

 

Minutes:

Submitted - the draft of the committee's annual report for 2019/20. The committee's observations and approval of the document were invited.

 

Members were asked to check their biographies and to contact the Senior Solicitor - Corporate with any amendments / updates.

 

Councillor Beth Lawton noted the need to delete the reference to her as Chair of the Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee, and to note that she was now Vice-chair of the Care Scrutiny Committee.

 

It was explained that it was intended to carry on with the committee's work programme in light of the pandemic crisis, by submitting an amended work programme for members in February, when the situation in terms of resources, etc. would be clearer.

 

It was asked whether a reference should be included in the annual report towards a matter raised in the full Council on more than one occasion regarding the public interest test.  In response, it was explained that the training for community councils emphasised the message that councils adopted their own code, and no matter what the situation in terms of investigation, that promoting appropriate behaviour was part of the structure of every body and every meeting. The members agreed there was a need to convey a further message that conduct was not always something for the Ombudsman to resolve, and that the individual and the body in question had a responsibility, and the Senior Solicitor - Corporate was asked to include a paragraph along these lines in the annual report.

 

To approve the annual report to be submitted to the full Council on 3 December, subject to adding:-

·           a paragraph noting that every council, and every member of every council, has a role to uphold and promote a high standard of conduct in the public eye and to challenge inappropriate behaviour, with or without the Ombudsman's involvement.

·           introduction and foreword by the Chair and Monitoring Officer.