Contact: Jeff Pattison, tel. 01962 847321, email [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 The Standards Board for England has received a complaint concerning one of the County Council's co-opted members. The allegation is that the member failed to comply with the Members' Code of Conduct. The Standards Board has referred the complaint to the County Council for investigation and, if appropriate, hearing and determination. The complaint has been investigated by Mr Kevin Gardner who is the County Council's Head of Legal Practice. Mr Gardner has come to the conclusion that there is a case to answer, that the co-opted member has failed to comply with the Code of Conduct and the remainder of this report sets out the procedure to be followed.

2 Background

2.1 As noted in the previous section The Standards Board has referred for local investigation a complaint alleging that one of the County Council's co-opted members has failed to comply with the Code of Conduct. As members of the Committee will be aware co-opted members of the County Council are also required to confirm their acceptance of the Code of Conduct and to abide by its provisions. The regulatory regime under which complaints are received and, if appropriate, investigated, heard and determined is precisely the same for co-opted and independent members of the County Council as it is for elected County Councillors.

2.2 The Standards Board for England referred this complaint to the County Council for investigation. As Monitoring Officer I therefore appointed Mr Kevin Gardner, Head of Legal Practice to carry out the necessary investigation. This he has now done.

2.3 The conclusion to Mr Gardner's investigation is that, in his opinion, there is a case to answer that the co-opted member has failed to comply with the Member's Code of Conduct.

2.4 As the investigating officer has come to this conclusion there is, under the relevant statutory provisions, no discretion given to the Standards Committee as to how to proceed. A hearing must be held into the complaint and this must take place within a period of three months from the date that the investigating officer has finalised his report

2.5 The next stage of the process is therefore for the Standards Committee to arrange a hearing for the determination of this complaint.

2.6 A key issue that needs to be determined by the Standards Committee immediately is the size and constitution of the hearing panel. Guidance from The Standards Board for England on the establishment of hearing panels is as follows:

"We recommend that standards committees set up a panel of three to five members to make determinations on cases of misconduct. When it is determining a case the Standards Committee should be recognised as truly fair and politically unbiased so members of the public and members of the authority have confidence in its procedures and findings. To encourage confidence and remove any perception of political interference, we recommend that one of the independent members of the Standards Committee chairs the hearing."

2.7 The Hearing Panel will technically be constituted as a sub-committee of the Standards Committee and the power to create these is given to the Standards Committee itself by virtue of the Local Government Act 2000 Section 54A.

2.8 Once membership of the Hearing Panel has been agreed by the Committee, I, as Monitoring Officer, will be in touch with those selected members to discuss a date for the hearing and the procedure. I will also supply to them the detailed procedure note for such hearings that has been previously agreed by the Standards Committee, together with any other relevant guidance especially from The Standards Board.

3 Recommendations:

a) That the Standards Committee appoint a sub-committee to hear and determine this complaint in accordance with the advice contained in this report and with the Chairman of the sub-committee to be agreed by the Committee;

b) That a further member of the Standards Committee be appointed as a substitute on the sub-committee should for any reason one of the members appointed under Recommendation 1 be unable to attend the hearing on the agreed date;

c) That the Monitoring Officer arrange a hearing into this complaint, to take place within a period of three months from the date of the investigating officer's report and that the Monitoring Officer be empowered to take all necessary actions leading up and including the hearing itself.

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:

Published works.

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

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