Agenda item

The Committee considered the report in light of the discussion at the meeting on 21^st March 2019 (Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life) and discussed recommendations to Council.

The Monitoring Officer explained that at the last meeting of the Committee they considered a review report on Standards in Public Life and agreed several actions, one of which was an annual review of the Code of Conduct (Best Practice 3).

Best Practice 2 – Councils should include provisions in their code of conduct requiring councillors to comply with any formal standards investigations and prohibit trivial or malicious allegations by councillors.

She explained that paragraph 15 in the BaNES Code of Conduct referred to members co-operating, at all stages, with any investigation.  The Council had the arrangements for dealing with complaints on the website and stated that on the initial assessment criteria would be applied and referred to malicious, vexatious or tit-for-tat complaints.  The subject member of the complaint would always receive a copy of the complaint arrangements and there would be a cross-reference to the arrangements in the Code of Conduct.

Best Practice 4 – An authority’s code should be readily accessible to both councillors and the public, in a prominent position on a council’s website and available in council premises.

The BaNES Code of Conduct was accessible on the Council website and available on Council premises.

Discussion followed about a scenario if there was a complaint against a councillor who had then stood down.  The Monitoring Officer stated that usually the complaint would be discontinued, however if there was police involvement or exceptional circumstances then it would continue.

An advice note for Councillors on bullying and harassment was circulated from the Monitoring Officer.  Members took a few moments to consider this.  During discussion it was agreed to take out “which has no legitimate workplace purpose and” in the definition of harassment, so it would read –

“Harassment is any unwelcome behaviour or conduct which makes someone feel offended, humiliated, intimidated or frightened and/or uncomfortable at work.”

It was noted that harassment was often viewed as actions that were repeated however it could be a one-off incident.

On a motion from Axel Palmer, seconded by Deborah Russell it was

RESOLVED to formerly adopt the advice note for Councillors on bullying and harassment as Appendix 4 to the Code of Conduct and recommend the Council (at its next meeting) to accept the amendments to the Code of Conduct.  In the meantime the advice note could be used as best practice.

There was further discussion in relation to social media.  The Monitoring Officer explained that Social Media Guidance was available for Councillors which could be referenced in the Code of Conduct.  (This is on the Councillor dashboard under Communications– a Councillor’s Guide).  As the next meeting of Council was not until October, the issue of social media could be discussed at the meeting of the Standards Committee in September. 

The Monitoring Officer clarified that the recommendations made by the Standards Committee on the Member’s Gifts and Hospitality policy in March 2019, had been agreed at the Annual meeting of Council.  The policy was now attached to the Code of Conduct.  Parish councils had been informed of the policy, by the Monitoring Officer writing to the Clerk and the Chair.  It should be noted that parish councils were not required to use the BaNES Code of Conduct, but could agree their own or use the ALCA (Avon Local Council Association) model.

The Monitoring Officer briefly explained the background to the Gifts and Hospitality report, which had arisen from several complaints that councillors, attending dinners at the University of Bath worth more than £50, had not declared these.

The Chair invited all members to provide any further comments on the Code to the Monitoring Officer so these could be considered before the next meeting.