Agenda item

The Committee’s Action List is attached for consideration and amendment as necessary.

The Committee considered the Action List in detail and noted/agreed the following:

 

• Action 1 – The joint training with Warrington Borough Council had taken place on 18^th June 2008. A number of Members could not attend this event and so the possibility of arranging a new date with a role play training exercise was being investigated. This would incorporate the new Independent Member who had recently been appointed. It was agreed that Members be canvassed for a training date after 13^th November 2008.

 

• Action 3 – No information had been forthcoming from Wigan Council to date.

 

• Action 6 – It was confirmed that the cost of a training day could be met from within existing resources and the Parish Councils would be included in this.

 

• Action 7 – The website had been updated to state that complaints must now be submitted to the Councils Standards Sub-Committee. In addition, if the Committee agreed the filter arrangements before it today, information in this respect would also be added to the website.

 

• Action 9 – Training on the Code was now rolled out regularly and was well attended and this had negated the need for a DVD. It was agreed that the opportunity of including an article in “Inside Halton” be investigated to increase the profile of the Standards Committee. Information could be provided about protocols, should they be agreed by the Committee, together with links as to how these could be accessed with a timeframe for the review of requests. It was confirmed that this information would be ready following the next meeting of the Committee.

 

• Action 16 – Two Sub-Committees to be chaired an Independent Member had now been established. Further information had been circulated with the agenda outlining a proposed protocol for dealing with complaints based on guidance issued by the Standards Board. The Committee considered the documents that had been circulated in detail and agreed the following:

 

1)         Draft Monitoring Officer Protocol – Agreed with no changes.

 

2)         Terms of Reference of the Assessment Sub-Committee – agreed subject to the following amendments – 1b(iv) add “or the allegation is in respect of another body of which the Councillor is a member” and in respect of 1c(iii) the words “of the Standards Board for England” be included after “Adjudication Panel”.

 

3)         Terms of Reference of the Review Sub-Committee – agreed subject to additional wording to be added to paragraph 2, for the avoidance of doubt, stating that Members who sat on the Review Sub-Committee could not have already sat on the Assessment Sub-Committee.

 

4)         Draft Complaint/Assessment Criteria – agreed subject to the last paragraph under No. 1 being made impersonal, the penultimate paragraph under No. 2 being amended to read “the Sub-Committee will then consider whether, on the basis of the complaint and that additional information, there is a case to answer or there has been a possible breach of the Code of Conduct”.

• Action 17 – The Monitoring Officer had written to the Standards Board for England about the allocation of places on conferences and had requested a response. In the meantime, the Monitoring Officer and the Chairman would be attending the Annual Conference the following month.