Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was submitted from Chris Johnson.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 18 July 2022.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 18 July 2022 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To answer any public questions. A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice. The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this Committee.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

There were no public questions.

To answer any WBC Member questions.

There were no Member questions.

To answer any questions from Parish or Town Councillors.

There were no Parish/Town Council questions.

To consider the regular update report on Code of Conduct complaints.

The Committee received an update on complaints.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       Andrew Moulton, Assistant Director Governance, provided an update on the complaints process.  The Monitoring Officer would make an initial assessment of the complaint, write a summary of the complaint, and then subject to a consultation meeting with one of the Independent Persons, would take one of four courses of action. 

·       It was rare for complaints to reach the Members Hearing Panel stage.  Only the most serious complaints would go to this stage and there were a number of stages and processes in place prior to this.

·       Since the last Committee meeting three complaints had been received; two relating to Borough Councillors and one relating to a Town/Parish Councillor.  No further action was taken in one case.  WBC 6 was subject to an investigation. 

·       With regards to WBC 5, the complaint had been received from an Officer and had since been withdrawn, which ended the Code of Conduct process.  In terms of the process there were lessons to be learned.  Andrew Moulton indicated that he would bring a more detailed report back to the Committee on how processes could be improved, particularly regarding relations between Officers and Members.

·       Councillor Akhtar asked if there was differentiation in how complaints were dealt with depending on the seriousness of the complaint.  Andrew Moulton indicated that the different criteria were set out in the Code of Conduct.  The majority of complaints were concluded as ‘no breach.’

·       Sally Gurney asked for an update about a number of long-term outstanding complaints relating to Woodley Town councillors.  Andrew Moulton indicated that this matter had also been raised at the most recent Council meeting.  The majority of the historic complaints related to two Woodley Town Councillors.  Andrew Moulton would be writing to Woodley Town Council very soon to update on these complaints.  The complaints had been difficult to resolve due to a lack of cooperation from the Members involved.  He would look to see how he could support the Town Council in updating its Code of Conduct in line with the Local Government Association Code.

·       The Chair asked about timescales in resolving the outstanding historic complaints.  She was informed that communication with Woodley Town Council and the complainants would take place within the next few days. 

·       Adrian Mather indicated that comments had been made that the process did not have sufficient teeth and questioned whether it needed to be reviewed.  He queried whether those councillors who had received complaints and refused to cooperate, be required to attend a Member Hearing Panel.  Andrew Moulton commented that the whole system relied on relative cooperation.

·       Sally Gurney questioned whether amending the process so that in cases where the person being complained about did not engage in the process, a decision was made based on the information received, was still under consideration, and if this step could be added to the formal process.  The Chair asked whether the process was clear on the way forwards.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

To consider a report on Code of Conduct training for Members.

The Committee considered a report regarding training.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       From the Committee’s terms of reference, it was clear that members of the Committee need, amongst other things, the following skills and knowledge:

Ø  A detailed understanding of the Member Code of Conduct (including “the Nolan Principles” and those areas identified through the Committee’s analysis of complaints such as use of social media, the application of confidentiality etc);

Ø  Knowledge of how the processes work for dealing with complaints alleging a breach of the Member Code of Conduct including the role of the Independent Person and Monitoring Officer – it was suggested that the Committee invite one of the Independent Persons to a future Committee meeting.

Ø  A knowledge of the rules of natural justice and evidenced based decision making and how to apply them in the context of a standards panel hearing;

Ø  Knowledge of the Member Officer protocol;

Ø  Knowledge of other codes of conduct and procedures (e.g., Whistleblowing, Officer Code of Conduct).

·       It was proposed that short training sessions (30 minutes) be provided prior to committee meetings.

·       Members welcomed the forthcoming development of an online training package for Borough Councillors.

·       Sam Akhtar commented that it would be useful to look at the social media element of the Code of Conduct.

RESOLVED:  That the individual and collective training and development needs of the Committee members through the remainder of this municipal year and 2023/24, be agreed.