Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the HAMPSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE AUTHORITY STANDARDS COMMITTEE held at The Castle, Winchester on 17 June, 2008.

PRESENT:

Mr. M. James (Independent Member - Chairman); Councillors: Mrs. J.K. Frankum; E.F. Gale, MBE; D. Harrison and R. Kimber.

59 APOLOGIES

Apologies for absence were received from Mrs. W. Allen; Miss S. Roberts and Councillors A. Evans and A. Fraser.

60 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed that they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should, normally at the time of the debate, declare their interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in Paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the Fire Authority's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with paragraph 12 of the Code.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members under this item.

61 MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 22 June, 2007 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

62 DEPUTATIONS

There were no deputations.

63 LOCAL FILTERING OF COMPLAINTS ABOUT MEMBER CONDUCT

The Committee considered the report of the Clerk (Item 5 in the Minute Book) about new arrangements that will require all complaints concerning Member conduct under the Code of Conduct to initially be filtered by the local Standards Committee rather than as hitherto the Standards Board for England.

During a full discussion Members supported the proposed measures to ensure compliance with the newly enacted Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008. However, with regard to the specimen on-line complaints form attached as an appendix to the report, it was felt appropriate to amend the form so as to enable a complainant to indicate the outcome which they were seeking. In some cases a simple apology might be sufficient. This caused some Members to doubt if it was necessary to convene a meeting of the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee in such a situation or whether it might be left to the discretion of the Monitoring Officer. The Clerk agreed to write to the Standards Board for England on this matter and to let the Committee know the outcome.

RESOLVED:

(a) That the Committee notes the effect of the changes to the local filtering of complaints against Members of the Authority under the Code of Conduct and adopts this report.


(b) That the Committee appoints a Standards Assessment Sub-Committee and a Standards Review Sub-Committee with the Terms of Reference referred to in paragraph 3.2 and 3.5 respectively of the report.


(c) That the Monitoring Officer be authorised to appoint, and convene a meeting of, the Standards Assessment and Standards Review Sub-Committee, the membership of the Sub-Committee to be drawn from members of the Committee.


(d) That the Monitoring Officer be given authority to appoint an independent member of a Standards Committee from another Authority as an independent member of the Standards Assessment or Standards Review Sub-Committee should the Monitoring Officer consider that to be necessary.


(e) That, subject to the specimen complaint form being amended to show "what outcome are you seeking", it be used as the basis for any complaint to be made against a member of the Authority and that be published on the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service website.


(f) That as a matter of policy, the Committee will not consider any complaints made against a member of the Authority where the complainant fails to disclose their identity but that the Monitoring Officer be given authority at his or her discretion to withhold the identity of a complainant.


(g) That the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, be given authority to defer notification of an allegation having been received where to do so is considered necessary to enable a proper investigation to take place.


(h) That the Clerk write to the Standards Board for England to convey the Committee's view as to the necessity of convening a meeting of the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee in a situation whereby the complainant has indicated that an apology only is being sought and whether this might not be dealt with at the discretion of the Monitoring Officer.

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