Issue - items at meetings - Localism Act 2011

Report of the Monitoring Officer (copy attached).

23.1    The Committee considered a report of the Monitoring Officer regarding the Localism Act 2011. The Senior Solicitor explained that the original proposals had been to abolish Standards for England, the requirement for local authorities to have a Standards Committee and the Code of Conduct. Amendments to the legislation now set a requirement for local authorities to maintain high standards of conduct, set a local Code of Conduct in line with the Nolan Principles and establish rules in relation to pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests. Suitable arrangements would also need to be in place to respond to written allegations of breaches of the Code of Conduct.

A recent opinion from leading counsel suggested that current independent members would not be eligible to sit under the new arrangements. It would also become a criminal offence without reasonable excuse to fail to declare a pecuniary interest, or participate in a meeting when a Member was not able to do so.

23.2    The Senior Solicitor noted that the report recommended the Localism Bill working party be reconvened to consider the changing regulations. The Head of Law and Monitoring Officer, Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis, said that the Working Party would also be able to feed into the governance changes for the new style committee system. It was noted that the feed in from the Working Party would need to be completed quickly, and potentially a special meeting of the Standards Committee would need to convene to consider its proposals.

23.3    The Head of Law and Monitoring Officer highlighted the limited powers local authorities would have, under the new legislation, to sanction Members for breaches of the Code of Conduct. There would be no provision to disqualify or suspend Members; nor could Members be removed from Committee appointments as these were made by individual group leaders and most Committees were subject to proportionality rules; there would also be no power to withhold allowances. It was explained that Magistrates’ Courts did have the power to disqualify Members upon conviction. 

23.4    Councillor Lepper expressed her concern that the inability of local authorities to enforce real sanctions on Members, who were found to be in breach in of the Code of Conduct, could prevent the proper mitigation of inappropriate behaviour. It was also explained that anyone could bring a case to the attention of the Director of Public Prosecution; the new legislation did not exclude other legislation that could cover wrong doing such as the Fraud Act or the Bribery Act.

23.5    The Head of Law and Monitoring Officer also highlighted that the new legislation would have some inbuilt checks as there would always be the potential for breaches of the Code of Conduct to be made public; and it was suggested moves could be made to make arrangements with group leaders for the removal of Members from Committees.

23.6    RESOLVED – The report be noted, and the Localism Bill Working Party be reconvened to consider arrangements under the Localism Act for the assessment, investigation and determination of Code of Conduct complaints.