Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the STANDARDS COMMITTEE of HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL held at The Castle, Winchester on 7 October 2008.

PRESENT:

27. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Ludlow and Mr Ellis.

28. 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.

29. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 1 July 2008 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

30. TERMS OF REFERENCE

The Committee considered and approved the report of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services and Monitoring Officer (Item 5 in the Minute Book) recommending an adjustment to the Committee's terms of reference in the context of 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.

RESOLVED:

That it be a RECOMMENDATION to the Governance Committee, Cabinet and County Council:

That the terms of reference of the Standards Committee set out in Part I: Chapter 9 of the Constitution be revised by the replacement of paragraph 9.3(g) with the following:

To establish sub-committees to take such action as is necessary to assess, review, investigate, determine and impose appropriate sanctions in respect of any written allegation that a Member has failed to comply with the Authority's Code of Conduct.

31. PROCEDURES FOR ASSESSMENT, INVESTIGATION AND DETERMINATION OF COMPLAINTS UNDER THE MEMBERS' CODE OF CONDUCT

The Committee considered and approved the report of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services and Monitoring Officer (Item 6 in the Minute Book). The report concerned the measures that the Committee needed to take following the receipt of statutory guidance from the Standards Board for England 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 detailed procedural arrangements and local assessment criteria were appended to the report and would be published on the County Council's website.

RESOLVED:

That the draft procedures and terms of reference for the Standards Assessment, Standards Review, Standards Consideration and Standards Hearings Sub-Committees be approved.