Contact: Jeff Pattison, ext 7321 email [email protected] or Ejner Knudsen, ext 7403 email [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 As part of last year's work plan for external audit (the Audit Commission) it was agreed that they would undertake a corporate ethical governance survey. The purpose of the survey was to objectively assess the County Council's arrangements for ethical governance and whether effective mechanisms existed for ensuring high standards of conduct.

1.2 As part of this survey interviews took place with a small number of senior members and officers and questionnaires were sent to all county councillors and to 63 senior officers. Disappointingly there was a small response to this questionnaire with only 11 councillors and 14 officers responding. Due to this low response rate the Audit Commission's report notes that they "cannot say that the survey results are statistically valid but they provide some useful insights".

1.3 Significantly the Audit Commission's report, a copy of which can be obtained from Jeff Pattison if desired, at paragraph 15 notes that ethical standards in Hampshire County Council are high and that up until the date that the report was published in March 2006 only eight complaints had been made to the Standards Board about alleged breaches of the Code of Conduct and the Board has accepted only two for investigation. In both of these cases although the Board found that the member concerned had breached the Code of Conduct the breaches were not sufficiently serious to warrant further action. This covers a period from the adoption of the Code of Conduct in spring 2002 until March 2006. The report also indicates at paragraph 16 a series of actions that the Council has taken to actively promote high standards of conduct. These include:

· Providing training for both councillors and officers on ethical standards and the County Council's arrangements;

· Holding update seminars on developing knowledge and practice in ethical governance, especially in response to Standards Board investigations;

· Issuing regular reminders to councillors and officers on ethical standards especially the need to register gifts, interests and hospitality and to declare interests;

· Ensuring that the lawyer present at each decision-making meeting can advise councillors on declaring interests;

· Promoting an ethos of erring on the side of open and transparent ethical behaviour in `grey areas', for example declaring an interest and leaving the room if the need to do so is unclear;

· The Monitoring Officer, Chief Executive and group leaders taking prompt action to rectify any potential unethical behaviour and prevent its recurrence;

· Surveying compliance with its corporate governance arrangements and taking remedial action where necessary; and

· Having sound procedures and appropriate relationships with the police to investigate alleged breaches of council regulations and the law, for example, allegations of fraud.

1.4 The report also indicates seven recommendations for the County Council to take into account in further promoting high standards of behaviour.

2 Audit Commission's recommendations for further action

2.1 Whilst it is pleasing to note the Audit Commission's views that standards of conduct at the County Council are high with many actions having been taken to promote this position, it is often also very valuable to note the opinions of organisations such as the Audit Commission on further actions that could be taken to improve upon what are already high standards of conduct. Indicated below therefore are the seven recommended actions proposed by the Audit Commission with a commentary on what further actions, if any, need to be taken to respond to those recommendations.

2.1.1 Recommendation 1

Appoint independent members to the Standards Committee so that it can meet.

Commentary

This recommendation relates to a very short period in Autumn 2005 when the Standards Committee was unable to meet due to one of the independent members, Dr Spender, resigning her position due to a perceived conflict of interest and the other remaining member being unable to attend a meeting. As members will recollect the statutory requirements for a quorum for the Standards Committee necessitate at least one of the independent members being present. This situation arose at very short notice and temporary arrangements were quickly put in place to cover the situation. Members will recollect that at the Council meeting on 8 December 2005, two additional independent members were appointed (from the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority Standards Committee) for a short period in order to cover this gap. At the same time the Council was undertaking a recruitment exercise for new independent members with their term of office commencing in February 2006 for a four year period.

It is disappointing that the Audit Commission's report issued in March 2006 did not fully recognise the steps that had been taken to cover this situation.

2.1.2 Recommendation 2

Consider appointing an independent chairman of the Standards Committee.

Commentary

This issue was considered by the Governance Committee on 27 October 2005 and it was decided that the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Committee should continue to be appointed from amongst County Councillors.

2.1.3 Recommendation 3

Consider amending the Council's Constitution so that a majority of Standards Committee members are independent.

Commentary

Once again this issue was considered at a meeting of the Governance Committee on 27 October 2005 and it was decided to retain the existing numbers of independent members sitting on the Standards Committee. The recent consultation paper from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minster ` Standards of Conduct in English Local Government: The Future' has also indicated that the Government does not favour a change in current arrangements whereby a majority of Standards Committee members are independent.

2.1.4 Recommendation 4

Make the Register of Members' Interests available on the Council's web site.

Commentary

The point has been made to the Audit Commission about this recommendation that a legal issue arises in the opinion of the Monitoring Officer about making the Register of Members' Interests available to the public on its web site. Section 81 of the Local Government Act 2000 covers the requirement for a Register of Members' Interests and for it to be available at an office of the local authority for inspection by members of the public at all reasonable hours. This provision is complied with by the register being available for inspection in the Chief Executive's Department. However what is surprising about this provision is that unlike other local authority administrative requirements, it specifically does not require that copies of the register are to be made available to the public. Obviously, the register contains personal information about members. In these circumstances the Monitoring Officer has some reservations about going beyond the specific statutory requirement in the Local Government Act 2000 and making this information available, in effect, to the world by putting it on the County Council's web site. The Monitoring Officer is aware that several other county councils in the south share a similar concern, although it is accepted that some other county councils do publish this information on their web sites.

2.1.5 Recommendation 5

Ensure that councillors and officers are more aware of ethical governance requirements, possibly by using on-line tuition and testing.

Commentary

Perhaps the best method of ensuring awareness of ethical governance issues, which are of particular relevance to members, is by the holding of training sessions. These have been undertaken regularly by the Monitoring Officer and Head of Democratic Services since the adoption of the Code of Conduct in 2002, with three sessions having taken place in 2005 and two already in 2006.

However, attendance has been disappointing and well below the Audit Commissions suggested attendance rate of 60% although this does not recognise member awareness through other avenues. For example, the Powerpoint presentation used by the Monitoring Officer has been emailed to all members. This will allow members to study the presentation at a time more convenient to themselves. Dual hatted members may also receive training from their District Councils.

For future training sessions, consideration will be given to changing the format so as to encourage more members to attend.

Consideration will also be given to a web based version of training on the members Code of Conduct, accessible by both members and officers.

2.1.6 Recommendation 6

Give better publicity to the Council's arrangements for ethical governance and their successes.

Commentary

It is agreed that more could be done to publicise the good arrangements which the Council has in place and which play their part in ensuring high standards of conduct at the County Council.

Discussions will therefore take place between the Monitoring Officer and the Head of Corporate Communications on how this can best be achieved, with an improvement plan agreed and subsequently implemented.

2.1.7 Recommendation 7

Formally consider the Council's response to the Tenth Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life recommendations.

Commentary

It is correct that the Council did not formally respond to this committee's recommendations. The Monitoring Officer's view, and this was stated to the Audit Commission, was that the Tenth Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (currently known as the Graham Committee) was presented to Parliament by the Prime Minister and was therefore for the Government to respond to. It was not a formal consultation paper for local government, as such, to respond to.

The view expressed by the Monitoring Officer was that once the Government had framed its response to the Graham Committee's recommendations it was likely that the Government would then issue a formal consultation paper on the Government's proposals. This is indeed what has happened and a report on these proposals was considered informally by the Governance Committee at its meeting on 6 February 2006 and a response has subsequently been given to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

2 Recommendation

That the Committee:-

1. Endorses the Audit Commission's views that Standards of Conduct at the County Council are high.

2. Agrees the response to the Audit Commissions recommendations as contained in the report.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

N.B. The list excludes:

1. Published works.


2. Documents that disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE FILE

Audit Commission report on standards of ethical governance at Hampshire County Council