Issue - meetings

The purpose of the report is to address the need to set up an Assessment Sub-Committee and a Review Sub-Committee to deal with the local assessment and review functions and to appoint Members and make provisions for the appointment of Chairmen to those Sub-Committees.

The Committee considered a report of the Interim Monitoring Officer on the need to set up Sub-Committees of the Standards Committee to deal with the local assessment and review function.  The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 gave Standards Committees the role of undertaking the initial assessment  of misconduct allegations in place of the Standards Board for England.

There were Regulations available together with guidance which gave detailed advice as to how the local assessment function was to be discharged by Standards Committees. 

The report recommended establishing two Sub-Committees:

      Assessment Sub-Committee – to make an initial assessment of the allegation and decide whether to refer it to the Monitoring Officer for further investigation or alternative action; refer it to the Standards Board for England (if seen as too serious to be dealt with locally) or take no further action;

      Review Sub-Committee – to consider requests for a review of the decision of the Assessment Sub-Committee to take no further action on the allegation.  This Sub-Committee would then consider the allegation afresh and decide whether to refer it to the Monitoring Officer for further investigation or local resolution; refer it to the Standards Board for England  (as above) or decide that no further action should be taken.

The two Sub-Committees would need to have separate membership in relation to dealing with an allegation.  The Regulations required that an Independent Member must chair a Sub-Committee and at least one Member of the Authority must be present at a Sub-Committee meeting; if the complaint related to a Parish Council then a Parish Councillor must be present (who was not also a Member of the Authority).  The regulations prescribed that to be quorate a Sub-Committee must have at least three Members present for its duration.  Members of either Sub-Committee would not be barred from participating in the meeting of the Standards Committee that ultimately determined the complaint. 

RESOLVED:  That

(a)   an Assessment Sub-Committee be established with Mr N Briers as Chairman and a Review Sub-Committee be established with Mr D Sayer as Chairman – if either is not available then another Independent Member be approached to chair the Sub-Committee; and

(b)   membership of the Sub-Committees be drawn from the membership of the Standards Committee based on availability of Members and detail of the allegation concerned and with an understanding that membership be rotated as far as possible to enable as many Members as possible to be involved in the process.