Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Judith Boothman.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

No declarations of any interest were declared.

To confirm the minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 16 September 2010 as a correct record for signing by the Chair. (enclosed)

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 16 September be held as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

The Monitoring Officer will present a verbal update on any items of interest.

The Monitoring Officer circulated information that had been received by the Council on the future proposals regarding the abolition of the Standards Board regime.

It was reported that subject to Parliament approving the necessary legislation, the changes would be as follows:

• The Relevant Authorities (General Principles) Order 2001, which sets out the principles which govern the conduct of members and co-opted members of relevant authorities in England and police authorities in Wales be revoked.
• The Local Authorities (Model Code of Conduct) Order 2007 which prescribes the model code of conduct to apply to members of relevant authorities, will be revoked.
• The requirement for local authorities to have standards committees will be abolished.
• Standards for England (formally known as the Standards Board for England) will be abolished. Established by the Local Government act 2000 and the regulator for local authority standards committees, the Standards Board requires primary legislation to abolish it and its legislative functions. None of the Standards Boards functions will be transferred to other bodies.
• The First-tier Tribunal (Local Government Standards in England), the independent judicial tribunal established as a disciplinary body to hear and determine references and appeals concerning the conduct of local authority councillors, will lose its jurisdiction over the conduct of local authority members.

It is intended to effect the abolition of the Standards Board regime through the Localism Bill. It is anticipated that the Bill would be laid before Parliament in December and would receive Royal Assent  in late 2011.

RESOLVED – That the information be noted.

To receive the report of the Monitoring Officer outlining recent cases which had been considered nationally (to follow)

The Monitoring Officer presented a verbal report outlining recent cases which had been considered nationally.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

Table (enclosed)

Four

Members of the Committee will give feedback on their visits to Town and Parish Councils.

Members updated the Committee on their visits to Parish Councils. The feedback aws positive and the visits achieved the aim of raising awareness of the Committee and its role.

The remaining two Parish Councils would be allocated to the newly appointed Member of the Standards Committee.

RESOLVED 1.         That the schedule recording the visits to Parish Councillors be updated, including Committee Members who were not present at the meeting.

2.         That the Democratic and Member Services Officer would provide the details of the remaining two Parsih Council to the newly appointed Member of the Standards Committee.

The Monitoring Officer will present a verbal update of the training session that is taking place on 8 December 2010.

The Monitoring Officer provided a verbal report of the Code of Conduct for Parish Councillors training session that had taken place on 8 December 2010. Seven parish councillors/clerks had attended the session and the feedback had been extremely positive.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

The Committee will consider the enclosed work programme for 2010/11. 

The Committee discussed the Work Programme and following the recent news that the Standards Board regime was to be abolished the Committee decided to consider an alternative proposal that could be submitted to the Executive Cabinet on a local alternative.

RESOLVED – That the Work Programme be amended.