Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were submitted from Sally Gurney and Chris Johnson.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 23 January 2023.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 January 2023 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest submitted.

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 Member questions.

There were no Member questions.

To answer any questions from Parish/Town Councillors.

There were no questions received.

To consider a presentation followed by Q&A on complaint procedures.

Andrew Moulton, Assistant Director Governance took the Committee through the Member Code of Conduct Complaints procedures.

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

·       Legally the Council was required to make arrangements to deal with allegations, with the Borough Council dealing with both Borough and Parish cases.

·       The process for dealing with misconduct complaints was set out in section 9.1.11 of the Council’s Constitution.

·       Complaints could come in through various routes, including directly via email and the Council’s website.  Following the receipt of a code of conduct complaint the Monitoring Officer would write to the complainant within 3 working days acknowledging receipt and also providing a copy of the complaints’ procedure.

·       If the complaint related to a Town or Parish Councillor, the relevant clerk was informed that a complaint had been received.  It was noted that if the Councillor was both a Borough and Town or Parish Councillor, the Monitoring Officer had to establish what capacity they were acting at the time of the complaint. 

·       The Subject Member was informed of the complaint as soon as possible and given 15 working days to provide initial comments.  If none were received the Monitoring Officer proceeded with the assessment on the basis of the original complaint.

·       If the complaint related to a Town or Parish Councillor, the Monitoring Officer would seek a response from the Clerk.  This would purely relate to the clarification of factual matters.

·       The purpose of the initial assessment by the Monitoring Officer in consultation with the Independent Person, was to determine whether the complaint should be accepted for further consideration or rejected.  Andrew Moulton outlined the criteria that would be applied to determine this, including sufficiency of information and seriousness of complaint.

·       The Committee noted the initial assessment process.  The decision of the Monitoring Officer would normally be taken within 20 working days of the complaint being received.

·       Anonymous complaints were not normally considered; however, they could be considered in exceptional circumstances.

·       The process of the findings of the investigation were set out in 9.1.13 of the Constitution.  

·       Imogen Shepherd Dubey questioned why the Town and Parish councillor representative on a Hearing Panel convened to review a complaint regarding a Town and Parish Councillor, did not have voting rights. Andrew Moulton commented that it was within the legislation.  Roy Mantel added that there were more Town and Parish Councillors than Borough Councillors, who were subject to the Code of Conduct.

·       Sam Akhtar asked how quickly Councillors were informed if there was a complaint against them and was informed that it was often within a day of the receipt of the complaint.  He went on to ask if Councillors were fully informed if they an anonymous complaint was received against them.  Andrew Moulton indicated that they would be told of the nature of the complaint against them.

·       In response to a question from Sheena Matthews regarding how Independent Persons were appointed, Andrew Moulton stated that they were appointed by Full Council.  The Council currently had three  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

To consider the regular update on Code of Conduct complaints.

The Committee received an update on complaints.

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

·       Since January two new complaints had been received, one Parish and one Borough. Both were at the formal investigation stage, and it was anticipated that they would be dealt with by the Investigator in approximately a month’s time.

·       WBC 6 had been to investigation and was at the next decision making process.

·       Further information was provided around the historical Woodley complaints.

·       Neil Allen highlighted capacity issues in his area and indicated that complaints would be prioritised going forwards.

·       With regards to WBC 6 Sheena Matthews asked whether the upcoming elections would have an impact, i.e., if the person being complained about was or was not re-elected.  The Committee was informed that the Subject Member was not up for election.

RESOLVED:  That the update on complaints be noted.

To consider and approve the Standards Committee Annual Report 2022/23, for submission to Council.

The Committee considered the Standards Committee Annual Report 2022-23.

The report outlined the work of the Committee during 2022-23.

RESOLVED: That the Standards Committee Annual Report 2022-23 be recommended to Council for approval.