Archived decisions

Part II

REPORT OF THE

GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE

ETHICAL GOVERNANCE AT THE COUNTY COUNCIL - AUDIT COMMISSION REPORT

1. As part of last year's agreed work plan for external audit of the County Council, the Audit Commission undertook a corporate ethical governance survey. The purpose of the survey was to assess objectively the County Council's arrangements for ethical governance and whether effective mechanisms existed for ensuring high standards of conduct.

2. As part of this survey interviews took place with a small number of senior members and officers. This was supplemented by questionnaires to a wider audience of both members and senior officers.

3. Significantly the Audit Commission's report 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 by members of the County Council and, of these, the Board had 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 had not been deemed sufficiently serious as 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 highlights actions that the Council has taken directly to promote high standards of conduct and made recommendations for the County Council to take into account in its efforts to maintain its high ethical standards. These included ongoing training and ethical updates for members and officers (further events are in the early stages of preparation for the Autumn), the need to continue to ensure that consistent and clear advice is given to members concerning the declaration of interests, the registration of interests and notification of gifts and hospitality, and having arrangements in place at member and officer levels to ensure that prompt remedial action is taken in the event of unethical behaviour coming to light.

4. The Committee has endorsed the Audit Commission's view that standards of conduct at the County Council are high and noted the many actions taken to promote this position including the regular training sessions run by the Monitoring Officer for all members. In that respect the Audit Commission had suggested that consideration be given to other means of increasing members' and officers' awareness of ethical governance requirements such as on-line tuition and testing. The Governance Committee agreed and considered that attendance at the briefings should be deemed by members to be compulsory. The Committee also supported the views expressed by the Audit Commission about the need for the Council to give better publicity to its arrangements for ethical governance and its successes.

T. K. THORNBER, C.B.E, Chairman