Issue - meetings

Chris Moister, the Monitoring Officer will attend to discuss the enclosed report previously considered by the Governance Committee.

The Chair welcomed Chris Moister, Head of Legal, Democratic and HR Services.  The report has previously been considered by the Governance Committee.  The changes have not yet been implemented.  A further report will be presented to Governance Committee and shared with this group. 

Members noted the changes to sanctions and suspensions, and that Chris (as Monitoring Officer) already provides support to Town and Parish Councils on standards issues.  One of the proposed changes is to include a Parish Council representative on Governance Committee. 

Members noted issued faced in relation to the use of social media.  Chris will facilitate some training on this issue. 

To receive and consider the report of the Monitoring Officer.

Members of the Governance Committee received an update on the Local Government Ethical Standards report prepared by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

Since the introduction of the local code of conduct through the Localism Act 2011 there had been no formal review of the operation of local codes or investigatory processes. The Committee for Standards in Public Life had therefore undertaken a review on the effectiveness of the current arrangements.

Following this review, the Committee created recommendations for improvements both to the form of the codes themselves but also in relation to their operation and investigation into complaints. The Committee made a list of 26 formal recommendations, which included a model code and a move back to more prescriptive sanctions. These formal recommendations would not be easily implemented directly by the Council and some would require changes to legislation.

The Committee also made a series of 12 Best Practice recommendations. These were capable of being adopted by the Council without any further intervention from third parties. Members were made aware that it was the intention to assess authorities against the implementation of these Best Practice Recommendations.

Overall, the Best Practice Recommendations were rational, supportive and sought to help Members. Members welcomed the requirement that the Code of Conduct would be reviewed and revised annually. Members were reassured that some of the recommendations were already implemented at Chorley Council and the council was broadly compliant with the Best Practice Recommendations.

It was proposed that a Working Group derived from the Governance Committee was to be formed to consider these Best Practice recommendations in detail. Recommendations would then be made to the Governance Committee on the adoption and incorporation of them into the Code of Conduct or council procedures as necessary. The membership of the Working Group was confirmed as follows; Councillors Yvonne Hargreaves, Kim Snape and Steve Holgate.

Cllr Holgate advised that LCC had recently undertaken a scrutiny review and published a report titled ‘Does Local Government Work for Women?’ It was suggested that it could be of benefit for Chorley Council to have sight this.

Members queried the involvement of Parish and Town Councils. Officers advised that the report would be presented at the Chorley Liaison meeting. It was suggested that it was premature to invite the Parish Councils to the standards committee as this would require a change in law.

Decision;

1.    The formal recommendations were noted.

2.    That a working group formed from Governance Committee be established to consider the Best Practice recommendations and recommendations be made on the adoption and incorporation of them into the Code of Conduct or council procedures as necessary.