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Minutes of the Meeting of the STANDARDS COMMITTEE
held on 16 April 2002
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PRESENTMr. Michael Wheway (Chairman); Councillors Michael Arthur, George Crawford, John Green,
Mr Trevor Rains and Vince Romagnuolo.
Officers present: Trevor Smith and Fiona Cotter.
In attendance: Councillors Pam Ballard and Ruby Smith
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ANNOUNCEMENTS. The Chairman welcomed Councillors Pam Ballard and Ruby Smith to
the meeting as observers and the Committee joined the Chairman in welcoming Trevor Rains as the
second lay member and in congratulating the Chief Solicitor and the other members of the Mayor's team
on successfully completing the London Marathon.
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MINUTES. The Minutes of the meeting held on 29 January 2002 were agreed as a true record
and signed by the Chairman. This was subject to the following amendment to Minute 25 ("Members'
Code of Conduct"):
Paragraph 25, lines 3 and 6 amend "recommended" to read "agreed" and add to the end of the
paragraph "The Committee agreed to recommend to the Council that it should adopt the amended
draft as the authority's Local Code of Conduct."
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MATTERS ARISING. The Committee was updated on the following matters:
(a)
Production of the Committee's Annual Report: The Chairman reported that, in
consultation with Officers, he had come to the conclusion that, as the Local Code of
Conduct was probably the most important issue that the Committee had handled during
the year, it would be appropriate to delay the production of the Report until the Local
Code had been reconsidered by Council. It was agreed that a draft report should be
prepared in time for consideration by the Committee in June and by the Council in July.
(b)
Meeting with the Scrutiny Committee: The Chairman reiterated that he had had a very
constructive meeting with the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee but that the difficulty
in producing an agreed note of that meeting highlighted the need to develop a better
understanding as to how the various arms of the organisation functioned and could work
together for the common good of ethical governance.
(c)
Hospitality at Epsom Racecourse: Councillor Green reported that the meeting had taken
place with the new Mayor to establish a programme of use for 2002/03 and sought the
advice of his colleagues on the Mayor's proposal to extend hospitality to key Ward
Constituency workers.
Having taken into consideration how members of the public might perceive this, the
Committee suggested that invitations to this particular group should be spread over a
number of meetings and that they might support the Mayor by helping him to entertain
other guests.
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Meeting of the Standards Committee, 16 April 2002
(d)
Employees Code of Conduct: The Chief Solicitor had nothing further to report at this
time. He understood that it was likely that the Government would be issuing a draft
Model Code in May/June.
(e)
Recording of Apologies: This was still under investigation.
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MEMBERS' CODE OF CONDUCT. At the request of the Council, the Committee gave further
consideration to the draft Local Code of Conduct.
It was noted that, as instructed by Council, the Chief Executive had sought advice from the Standards
Board for England on the interpretation to be placed on the words contained in the Model Code. The
response from the Standards Board was appended to the Agenda and had been circulated to Members via
Members' Briefing. The Standards Board had confirmed that the Council was under a legal duty to adopt
the mandatory provisions contained in the Model Code by 5 May 2002. The Committee agreed that, in
view of the advice of the Standards Board for England, the Council should adopt Sections 2(b) and 10(e)
of the Model Code as drafted.
The Chief Executive had not sought specific advice on the proposal to add "Working Parties" to Section
13(b) in Part 2 nor on Councillor Taylor's suggestion to require a reference to the identity of the donor in
Section 17. However, the Standards Board had indicated that the proposal to add a reference to the
refusal of gifts and hospitality "did not appear to be problematic". The Committee was content that these
further additions were entirely consistent with the spirit of the Code and agreed that the words "Working
Parties" could be added to the end of Section 13(b) and that the paragraph relating to the registration of
gifts and hospitality should be amended to read "A member must within 28 days of receiving or declining
any gift or hospitality over the value of £25, provide written notification to the authority's monitoring
officer of the existence and nature (including the identity of the donor) of that gift or hospitality."
The Council had also asked this Committee to consider the inclusion of the following words to paragraph
15 of the draft Code (registration of other interests): " A Member should register any interest that he/she
believes might be regarded by the public as likely to influence the Member's work on the authority. This
includes membership of private organisations such as the Freemasons and other similar organisations
(whether membership is secret or not) and service clubs such as Rotary and Round Table."
Whilst accepting the spirit of this amendment, the Committee was keenly aware of the advice of the
Standards Board for England that "such a provision may be subject to challenge under the Human Rights
Act." The Committee therefore agreed that the Council ought not adopt such wording at this time.
However, it was further agreed that the following additional paragraph could be an acceptable alternative
until there was some case law on the application of the Code: " 16. A member should register any
interest in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs 14 and 15 that he/she believes might be regarded
by the public as likely to influence the Member's work on the Authority. This could include membership
of private organisations". However, the Committee hoped that members would to be as transparent as
possible in declaring their interests in view of the unique nature of the Council.
The Committee decided that it would be useful to accompany the Code with a copy of the ten General
Principles on which it was based.
Accordingly, the Committee recommended that
H
Council should adopt the amended draft appended to these Minutes as the authority's
Local Code of Conduct.
Finally, the Chief Solicitor confirmed that he had had an informal response from the Local Government
Association acknowledging the Council's representations to the Government regarding the introduction of
an appeal process for Members accused of serious infringement of the code, separate from judicial review
and the introduction of legal advice and support for Members who have had a complaint made against
them. A formal response would follow shortly and would be copied to all members of the Council.
Meeting of the Standards Committee, 16 April 2002
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MONITORING OFFICER PROTOCOL. The Committee considered and agreed a draft local
protocol on the arrangements and undertaking between the Monitoring Officer, Officers and Members
subject to the amendment of paragraph (l) to read: "The Monitoring Officer will appoint a deputy and
will keep him or her briefed on emerging issues. The Deputy Monitoring Officer will carry out the duties
of the Monitoring Officer in his or her absence." The Monitoring Officer would invite comments from
Councillors and staff and would agree further amendments with the Committee (if necessary through
correspondence) before presenting it to Council for approval.
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THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES (STANDARDS COMMITTEE)(DISPENSATION)
REGULATIONS 2002. The Committee noted that these regulations had come into force and recognised
the practical difficulties in implementing these regulations that would need to be addressed.
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AUDIT REVIEWS. Copies of the draft internal audit reports reviewing ethical governance and
the recording of members' and officers' pecuniary interests, hospitality and gifts had been appended to the
Agenda. The Committee noted that the reports broadly supported the approach that it had adopted on the
issues in question but was surprised and disappointed that neither the Chairman nor any other member of
the Committee had been invited to contribute to the review of the recording of members' and officers'
pecuniary interests, hospitality and gifts.
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CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND TRAINING EVENTS. The Committee received a brief
report on events attended and noted forthcoming events on standards related matters.
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COUNCILLOR CRAWFORD. Councillor Crawford stated that he would not be available for
reappointment to the Committee for 2002/03, as he would be taking on a number of additional
responsibilities in support of the Mayor elect. The Committee noted his decision with regret and
expressed its deep appreciation of his efforts on behalf of the Committee since its formation in 1999.
The meeting ended at 9.20 p.m.
The foregoing report is hereby confirmed as the Minutes of the meeting to which it relates
MICHAEL WHEWAY
Chairman
DATE: