Issue - meetings

(In accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct as contained in the

Council’s Constitution, Councillor Chris Baron had previously declared a Non-Registrable Interests in relation to this item. His interest was such that he remained in the room and took part in the discussion and voting thereon.)

As part of the Ethical Governance framework, the Director of Legal and

Governance (and Monitoring Officer) gave an update regarding the following:

Politically Restricted Posts

The Council’s HR Team had produced a new list of politically restricted posts which had been duly submitted to the Unions for their consideration and response.  The Unions had responded with queries regarding eight posts within the list and these were currently being considered.  They had also requested further discussions with officers so an update would be brought back to the Committee meeting in March 2022.

Committee was also asked to note that employees were afforded the opportunity to query their inclusion on the list if they were of the belief that their positions did not influence policy or have any involvement with Members etc.

Gifts and Hospitality

The Scrutiny Research Officer advised that in accordance with best practice recommendations, a revised declaration form for Gifts and Hospitality including a revised Guidance for Members were now attached to the report for consideration and approval.

Any declarations were now due to be publicly reported through the Council’s website (as managed by the ‘modern.gov’ software within Democratic Services) and a quarterly report would be presented to Committee for information.

Members were also asked to note that no declarations of gifts or hospitality had been received since January 2020.

Code of Conduct Guidance

Following Council’s approval and adoption of the new Member Code of Conduct, a set of guidance notes would be compiled and circulated to Members accordingly.

Members’ Complaints

Five complaints had been completed since the last update with receipt of a further three new complaints.  In conjunction with the Service Manager for Scrutiny and Democratic Services, new complaints were now receiving a preliminary examination at an earlier stage to swiftly eliminate any complaints that were not legitimate. 

The processing of Member complaints had suffered over the last few months due to prolonged staff shortages within the Legal Team and there were three long-standing complaints that needed to now be finalised as a matter of priority.

Members considered the list of complaints as presented and officers gave updates as required.  It was acknowledged that the new online form on the Council’s website for submitting Members’ complaints had allowed for more speedier processing and this was in conjunction with a wider review currently being undertaken regarding the Council’s general complaints process.

It was hopeful that Member complaints would now be dealt with in a shorter timescale with any illegitimate or inappropriate complaints being filtered out or signposted at an earlier stage.

RESOLVED that

a)    the updates provided regarding the review of the Politically Restricted Posts list, the Code of Conduct documents and outstanding complaints, be received and noted;

b)    the revised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10