Archived decisions
AT A MEETING of the HAMPSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE AUTHORITY STANDARDS COMMITTEE held at The Castle, Winchester on 12 September, 2008.
PRESENT:
Mr. M. James (Independent Member - Chairman); A. Evans; Councillors: Mrs. J.K. Frankum; A. Fraser; E.F. Gale, MBE; D. Harrison and R. Kimber.
Independent Members: Miss S. Roberts.
64 APOLOGIES
Apologies for absence were received.
65 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.
66 MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting held on 17 June, 2008 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
Matter Arising:
Local Filtering of Complaints About Member Conduct
On Minute 63, the Clerk reported that further advice had been received from the Standards Board for England. The advice was that if a formal complaint was received by the Standards Committee on its complaints form the legislation required that it be assessed and a decision made, by the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee, as to whether to take no action or to refer to either the Monitoring Officer or the Standards Board. However, where the complaint was received by the Monitoring Officer, and not by the Committee on its complaints form, the Monitoring Officer may decide on a course of action other than referring the complaint to the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee, if the complainant has indicated that this would be acceptable, such as where the matter could be resolved via an apology by the Member concerned.
67 DEPUTATIONS
There were no deputations.
68 STANDARDS COMMITTEE AND SUB-COMMITTEE - PROPOSED TERMS OF REFERENCE
The Committee considered the report of the Clerk (Item 5 in the Minute Book) recommending proposed terms of reference in relation to the Standards Committee and Sub-Committees for approval by the Authority at its meeting on 17 September, 2008. The Committee raised a number of questions for clarification by the Monitoring Officer, and were satisfied by the answers given.
RESOLVED:
That it be a RECOMMENDATION to the Authority:
That the terms of reference of the Standards Committee and Sub-Committees as appended to this report be approved.
69 PROCEDURES FOR ASSESSMENT, INVESTMENT AND DETERMINATION OF COMPLAINTS UNDER THE MEMBERS' CODE OF CONDUCT
The Committee considered the report of the Clerk (Item 6 in the Minute Book) on draft procedures to be followed by the Standards Committee in the handling of complaints under the Members' Code of Conduct. Members sought clarification of several aspects of the report, which was received from the Monitoring Officer.
RESOLVED:
That the draft procedures be approved.
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