Issue - meetings

To submit the report of the Monitoring Officer  (attached).

To submit the following observations in response to the consultation, and delegate the right to the Monitoring Officer to collate and convey the response on behalf of the Council:-

·         That the committee welcomes the document overall, and is of the view that it is readable and very useful in terms of explaining the code.  We also believe that the use of case studies and speech bubbles are a good way of highlighting parts of the document and making it relevant to people.

·         It would be useful if the examples of Code of Conduct breaches listed in the document also noted what the outcome had been, in order to give a clearer picture.

·         It would be useful if the document included examples of how the public interest test has worked in practice i.e. what types of complaints have passed the threshold, and what types of complaints have failed.

·         The document should be gender-neutral.

Submitted – the Monitoring Officer's report inviting the committee to provide comment and feedback on the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales Consultation on the new draft guidance on the Code of Conduct for Members of County and Town / Community Councils.

It was explained that the consultation had no prescribed questions, attention was drawn to the purpose of the document, and the following matters were suggested for the committee’s consideration:-

·         Is the guidance provided understandable and of use?

·         Are there any aspects which are not as good and could be improved and how?

·         Does anything else need to be included?  What?

It was further noted that the Democratic Services Committee had considered the consultation at its meeting held on 18 February, and although it was generally supportive of the guidance in its content and tone, some questions had arisen in relation to the challenge of political expression, and the line between what was appropriate and inappropriate, especially in the respect and use of social media etc.

Reference was made to specific sections of the guidance, namely:-

·         The two stage test used by the Ombudsman in deciding whether to investigate a complaint, or whether an investigation into a breach of the Code should continue.

·         The right to political expression, where the Code could intervene, and where it crossed the line. 

·         The relevance of the Code to individuals, and the expectation that people holding public office should maintain high standards of conduct.

·         The requirement for members who represented the Council on external bodies to comply with the Code of that body, as breaching that body's code could also mean that the member was breaching the Council's code.

·         The community leadership role of members, and how sending inappropriate e-mails, or the careless and irresponsible use of social media brought the member's office into disrepute.

·         The complex role and status of clerk within a community council.

·         The role of the Monitoring Officer in the context of community councils.

During the discussion, the following matters were raised:-

It was noted, although the guidance included examples of breaches of the Code, that there was no reference made to the sanction applied in those cases.

It was suggested that the use of case studies and speech bubbles were a good way of highlighting parts of the document and making them relevant to people.

It was noted that the point regarding a lack of complaints investigated by the Ombudsman was raised annually in the full Council, but it was evident than less than 5% of the Ombudsman's work related to Councils, with the majority of the complaints arising in the field of health. Attention was also drawn to the fact that the Ombudsman had stated clearly in the introduction to the guidance that the number of low-level complaints submitted remained too high, and although it appeared that a very small number of members submitted these complaints, in this challenging period it was even more important that his office was used effectively, and that any investigations undertaken  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6