Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the STANDARDS COMMITTEE of HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL held at The Castle, Winchester on 1 July 2008.

PRESENT:

23. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Bryant and Woodward.

24. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

All members who believed they had a personal or prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, were asked to declare that interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council'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. The declaration should be made at the time of the relevant debate.

25. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 3 July 2007 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

26. LOCAL FILTERING OF COMPLAINTS ABOUT MEMBER CONDUCT

The Committee considered and approved the report of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services and Monitoring Officer (Item 5 in the Minute Book). The report concerned the measures that the Committee needed to take to ensure compliance with the new statutory regime for the local filtering and determination of complaints where a Member was alleged to have breached the Council's Code of Conduct for Members. The Committee was mindful of the new responsibilities placed upon its members and agreed the framework proposed to enable prompt and efficient consideration to be given to any allegation that the Members' Code of Conduct may have been breached.

RESOLVED:

1. That the Committee notes the effect of the changes to the local filtering of complaints against Members of the County Council under the Code of Conduct and adopts the report of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services and Monitoring Officer.

2. That the Committee appoints a Standards Assessment Sub-Committee and a Standards Review Sub-Committee with the Terms of Reference referred to in paragraphs 3.2 and 3.5 respectively.

3. That the Monitoring Officer be authorised to appoint, and convene a meeting of, the Standards Assessment and Standards Review Sub-Committees, each to consist of three members including an independent chairman, the membership of the Sub-Committee to be drawn from members of the Committee.

4. 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.

5. The complaint form attached as an appendix to report of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services be used as the basis for any complaint to be made against a member of the County Council and that it be published on the Council's website.

6. That, as a matter of policy, the Committee will not consider any complaints made against a member of the County Council 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.

7. 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.