Agenda item

Consultation document circulated to stakeholders by The Committee on Standards in Public Life.

The Monitoring Officer will comment on a number of issues addressed in the consultation document and then invite the Committee to state its views on the specific questions asked, which she will include in her response.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a consultation document which had recently been circulated to stakeholders by the Committee on Standards in Public Life (printed on pages 5 – 8 of the agenda).

She said that, as concerns had previously been expressed by the Committee about the effectiveness of the current ethical standards arrangements, she assumed that it would want to take the opportunity to respond to this nationwide review.

Following a wide-ranging discussion on the main elements of the review, the following issues were identified for inclusion in a response:

Background and context

The Committee recognised that there had been widespread support for the abolition of the former Standards Board for England and for the reform of the previous very convoluted and prescriptive standards regime when proposals for change had first been made. However, the Committee noted that it was now widely accepted that, the current arrangements, whilst simpler, were fairly toothless and ineffective.

Q’s (a) & (b)  Existing structures processes and practices

The Committee stated that at Wyre the main issues were:

1.    That the local processes for considering alleged breaches of the Code of Conduct (although sometimes time consuming) were fair and reasonable, but effective outcomes and improved behaviours were often not achievable.

2.    That the most significant gap was the lack of sufficient sanctions to deter or improve inappropriate behaviours.

3.    That the responsibilities imposed on district council standards committees in areas such as such as Wyre were problematic, because of the large amount of time spent on dealing with complaints relating to parish and town councillors. In Wyre a disproportionate amount of time had been spent on complaints relating to behaviours and relationships with a very small number of Parish/Town Councils, which it had not been possible to resolve under the current arrangements.

Q’s (c) and (d)  Codes of Conduct

When the Localism Act was implemented, Wyre Council had chosen to adopt a simple, “light touch” Code of Conduct based on the existing model. The Standards Committee recognised that it could consider recommending to the Council that, in the light of experience, a more rigorous code should now be adopted which could, for example, require councillors to treat others “with respect” or refer more explicitly to situations when Councillors would be considered to be “acting as a Councillor” in the event of alleged breaches of the Code.

Q(e)  Investigations and decisions on allegations

The Committee considered that Wyre had adequate processes in place to investigate complaints, but a significant amount of time could still be spent dealing with fairly low level behavioural issues, rather than tackling significant wrongdoing or corruption.

Q(f)  Sanctions

The sanctions currently available were considered to be insufficient. Naming and shaming was not always a deterrent. The national review should therefore recommend to the Government that additional, more meaningful, sanctions be made available to local Standards Committees, including consideration of the following:

-       Suspensions;

-       Enforced removal from Committees or positions of responsibility, without reference to a Group Leader (which it was recognised would have to exclude the Leader of the Council, who can only be removed by a vote of the whole Council);

-       Withdrawal of Allowances.

Q(g)  Declaring interests and conflicts of interest

The Committee considered that clearer guidance should be given to Councillors on when interests should be declared, particularly when a non-financial interest was “significant”.

Q(h)  Whistleblowing

The Committee noted that Wyre’s Whistleblowing Policy was primarily targeted at employees (although Councillors could use it if they felt it necessary). As the policy had originally been approved and was reviewed annually by the Audit Committee, most recently in November 2017 when it had been considered satisfactory, the Standards Committee agreed that there was no need to comment on this issue.

Q’s (i) and ((j)  What steps could be taken by central government or the Council to improve standards?

The Committee reiterated its view that the measures referred to above should be considered, particularly the need for more effective sanctions.

Q(k)  Intimidation of local councillors

The Committee noted that this question had been included in the consultation as a follow up to a separate review recently undertaken by the Committee on Standards in Public Life on intimidation of candidates during the 2017 elections (and that for that review, intimidation had been interpreted as “words and/or behaviour intended or likely to block or deter participation, which could reasonably lead to an individual wanting to withdraw from public life”).The review had revealed that some candidates had experienced physical violence, damage to property, threats and abusive online and offline communication. Women, particularly black and Asian women, candidates and MPs were found to be disproportionally subjected to intimidation. A large amount of concern about intimidation via social media had also been reported.

The intimidation of candidates at elections was not considered to be a particular problem in Wyre, but concerns were expressed about the potential impact of increasingly vitriolic social media attacks on individual Councillors.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Monitoring Officer be asked to prepare a response to the consultation document, in line with the views expressed at the meeting (as listed above), to send copies to members of the Committee for information and then to submit it to the Committee on Standards in Public Life by the deadline of 18 May 2018.

That the Monitoring Officer be requested to report to a future meeting of the Standards Committee on possible revisions to the Council’s current Code of Conduct.