Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

No apologies for absence were received.

To receive any declaration of personal interest.

No declarations of personal interest were received.

To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chair for consideration.

No urgent matters were raised.

The Chair shall propose that the minutes of the meetings of this committee held on the following dates be signed as true records:-

·         14^th June, 2021

·         7^th July, 2021 (Special Meeting)

The Chair signed the minutes of the previous meetings of this committee held on 14 June and 7 July 2021 as a true record.

To consider the report of the Monitoring Officer.

To accept the report for information, and establish a Task and Finish Group, to include the Chair of the Standards Committee, together with one elected member (Councillor Anne Lloyd Jones), one independent member (Mr Dave Wareing) and Community Committee Member (Mr Richard Parry Hughes) with the support of the Senior Solicitor (Corporate), to discuss the findings of the Independent Review of the Ethical Standards Framework for Wales, giving particular attention to the following matters, and to submit recommendations to the next meeting of the Standards Committee on 14 February, 2022:-

·         The future format of the Standards Committee;

·         How to make the committee more visible and operational within the Council; and

·         How to strengthen and make the connection between the committee and various Council services, e.g. Democratic Services, more prominent.

Submitted - the report of the Monitoring Officer presenting information to the committee on the Review of the Ethical Standards Framework for Wales.

The Monitoring Officer drew attention to some points in the report, as follows:

·         Although One Voice Wales and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) were consulted as part of the review, it was surprising that there was no further consultation with a group of elected members, as this perspective would have been an important contribution to the creation of the report.

·         It was not anticipated that legislative work would begin on the statutory changes, etc., until after the May 2022 Elections, as so much was happening in local government legislation at present.

·         Although the recommendation that training on the Code of Conduct be made mandatory for all members of main councils and community councils was welcomed, there were questions arising as to the practicality of this, given that there were approximately 750 community and town council members across Gwynedd, and approximately 7,500 across Wales as a whole.

·         Although the recommendation that more complaints should be resolved locally seemed sensible at one level, such an approach inevitably required resources and time to investigate those issues.  This was true of Gwynedd's internal affairs and community council matters, also bearing in mind that not all community councils had the professional resource to undertake the work.

·         As the report highlighted the various ways in which standards committees across Wales operated, in terms of where the committee sat within the authority, its role and how proactive it was, etc., there may be issues here on which this committee should reflect, regardless of what would derive from the legislation.

·         The statutory responsibility of leaders of political groups for the conduct of their members (under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021) interwove with elements of this report, and created a platform to raise the profile of the Standards Committee, giving it a more prominent day-to-day role in matters of members' conduct.

The following main matters arising from the review were discussed:

Training

·         It was noted that online training could be organised for members of community and town councils, or paper-based training for anyone without a computer.  As well as eliminating the need to organise face-to-face training with so many members, it would also allow everyone to complete the training at a time convenient to them within a given time window.  It was noted, however, that the resources were needed to ensure that it was the correct training and was properly marked.

·         It was asked whether councils could work together to design training so that everyone received the same training, and that resources were pooled to put this together.  In response, the Monitoring Officer noted that this was essential, and for the May 2022 Elections, the WLGA together with a group of monitoring officers were already working on a consistent training package across Wales. 

The role of community/town council clerks

·         It was noted that the post of clerk of a community/town council was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To consider the report of the Senior Solicitor (Corporate)

To note the information.

Submitted - the report of the Senior Solicitor (Corporate) presenting information about the Ombudsman's decisions on formal complaints against members.

RESOLVED to note the information.

To consider the report of the Monitoring Officer.

To note the report.

Submitted for information – the report of the Monitoring Officer appending the Ombudsman’s 2020-21 Annual Report.

During the discussion, the following matters were raised:

·         It was noted from the table showing the proportion of complaints received under each principle compared to 2019/20 (page 101 of the agenda) that the number of complaints relating to promoting equality and respect had increased significantly, and the need to focus on this area when conducting the training was emphasised.  It was also noted that the number of disclosure and registration of interest complaints had decreased, suggesting that the message in relation to this was starting to get through.

·         It was noted that paragraph 3.2.1 of the Independent Review of the Ethical Standards Framework stated that equality and respect for others had been added to the Nolan Principles by the Welsh Government, but that these principles were not included in the Model Code of Conduct.  Therefore, failure to comply with equality and respect did not in itself constitute a breach of the Code, although failure to adhere to the principle of equality and respect would probably amount to a breach of the requirements set out in paragraphs 4 (a) and 4 (b) of the Code.

·         It was noticed that only 10 out of 500 complaints had been referred to standards committees over the entire year.  It was suggested that this might be a point to note in the full Council, although it was accepted that the sense of frustration would continue.  In response, the Monitoring Officer noted that, despite acknowledging the criticism of the procedure, etc., the low number of referrals could also be positive, as it suggested that the majority of complaints were not serious enough to warrant an investigation.

·         It was suggested that if people were more willing to apologise, many of these issues would soon be forgotten.

RESOLVED to note the report.