Agenda item

To review the Standards Code of Conduct.

The Monitoring Officer presented the new Model Councillor Code of Conduct (the Model Code) produced by the Local Government Association (LGA), and accompanying LGA Guidance.

She recommended:

• That the new Model Code and associated LGA Guidance was adopted or that the current Code of Conduct was retained.
• That following Committee’s decision the Monitoring Officer be given authority to draft any amendments needed to the current Constitution and or procedure for dealing with Code of Conduct complaints, organise an equality impact assessment of the same, and commission the design of a short post complaint survey for participants, and bring those amendments / copy of survey back to the Committee in a report to Full Council

The Independent Person said that a number of authorities had adopted the new model Code of Conduct. His personal view was that he doesn’t see a particular reason to adopt the new code as he felt that Uttlesford’s current Code of Conduct went through a great deal of work five years ago, had worked perfectly well and did not require amendment at this time.

He said that he thought that the procedure for considering a complaint needed considerable work to introduce examples that were not currently included but were in the LGA guidance and could be adopted.

The Chair asked whether social media, bullying and harassment was covered in the current Code of Conduct.

The Independent Person said that it could be incorporated into the procedure as was demonstrated with examples in the LGA guidance.

Members discussed:

• The need to identify the differences between the current and proposed Codes of Conduct
• The significance of the relationship with the Nolan Principles, and where they impinge on the Code of Conduct
• The benefits of a level playing field between authorities, all operating within the same Code of Conduct
• The definition of lying in relation to the Nolan Principles, the omission of a requirement for honesty/candour from them and the need to underpin acceptable behaviour within the Code of Conduct
• The benefits and flaws of the simplified model Code of Conduct
• The permanence of the Nolan Principles
• The need to focus on the management of bullying on social media
• The need for the inclusion of silence and omissions within the Code of Conduct

Councillor Foley joined the meeting.

The Monitoring Officer said that the Nolan Principles required that people in public life adhere to them, and that a statement could be added to the Code of Conduct to restate it.

The Independent Persons agreed:

·         They had been part of the development of the Code of Conduct and had assessed the Code with the then Monitoring Officer

·         The Nolan Principles were embedded within the Code of Conduct

·         They had worked towards a resolution to prevent spending huge sums of money on hearings and resolutions

·         The new Code was much lighter in its approach than the existing Code.

·         Some of the examples in the model Code were very valuable

·         The new model Code worked well

·         It was imperative that everyone understood the Code of Conduct and how it could be used to put together a complaint. Often evidence had not been gathered for a complaint and that concerns could have been addressed through training.

·         The new LGA guidance   defined bullying and harassment , based upon the ACAS definition, and could be adopted and put into the Council`s documents.

The Monitoring Officer said that either the current or model Code of Conduct could be amended.

Councillor Khan said that Members should be clear on the approach they were taking in relation to bad behaviour and role modelling. He said that debate and alternative views demonstrated a healthy democracy and could be conducted in a robust and civil manner. He said that on occasion Members raised a point of order when this happened, which was unacceptable and often escalated to ridiculous Standards complaints which should have been better managed by the Chair of the meeting.

Councillor Barker said that some Members did not understand what a Point of Order was.

Councillor Foley proposed approval of the recommendations as set out on the agenda.

This was seconded by Councillor Lemon.

The Chair requested and moved to a vote.

RESOLVED:

·        To adopt the new Model Code and associated LGA Guidance

·        The Monitoring Officer be given authority to draft any amendments needed to the current Constitution and or procedure for dealing with Code of Conduct complaints, organise equality impact assessment of the same and commission the design of a short post complaint survey for participants and bring those amendments / copy of survey back to the Committee in report to Full Council

Members agreed that training on the new Code of Conduct would be required to enable Members to understand the changes.

The Monitoring Officer said that the recommendation would be debated by Full Council and that there would be a further report for Council incorporating amongst other things comments made at this meeting. She said that training would follow the decision made.