Issue - meetings

To submit the report of the Monitoring Officer.

To note the report for information.

Submitted – the report of the Monitoring Officer appending a copy of the 2022-23 Annual Report of the Adjudication Panel for Wales for the attention of the committee.

The Monitoring Officer noted that the APW/008/2021-022/CT case on page 34 of the programme was noticeably crossing the boundary in terms of rights of expression, and underlined, that although members could judge concepts or disagree with someone's opinion, that making declarations that were factually incorrect, etc., meant that the protection quickly disappeared.⁠

It was noticed that the summary of the APW/009/2021-022/CT case, also on page 34 of the programme, noted that it appeared, at the time of writing the report, that the Council in question did not comply with the recommendations within the required timescale, and it was asked what the result of that would be.⁠ In response, the Monitoring Officer noted:-

·         That the report recommended that all present councillors of the Council in question should attend Code of Conduct training, etc., but that there was currently no specific power to force such matters on an entire council.  However, if another case arose in the same council, the Ombudsman would take notice of the fact that training was not provided etc,.

·         That one of the discussions as a result to the Penn review concerned expanding power, for example, Standards Committee, to demand that specific steps, such as attending training, would take place.

·         In terms of the case in question, if the problem continued and that there were further findings, the matter may ultimately be referred to the auditors if the council's culture reached that level.

RESOLVED to note the report for information.