Report by the Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer regarding the Review of the Committee’s Terms of Reference (circulated previously). 

The Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer presented the report to the Committee and confirmed that:

·         The Governance Committee was lacking in suitable powers within the Constitution to determine complaints regarding the conduct of District and Parish Councillors. Therefore a revision to the Constitution was needed to provide for this and further, such powers should be delegated to newly established sub-committees of the Governance Committee (Hearing Panels) to hold hearings relating to Code of Conduct complaints.

·         Appendix F showed a refreshed version of the arrangements for dealing with standards matters as required under the Localism Act 2011.  This had been in place as an unpublished flow chart but the proposal was to change this to a more detailed process available to the public to ensure the procedure was clear to follow, and transparent for both customers and councillors alike.

·         Appendix E covered the Local Hearing Procedure

·         Appendix D was the proposed membership of the hearing panels.

·         Appendices A-C covered the changes required to the Constitution to enable the delegation of powers to enable the determination of complaints regarding the conduct of District and Parish Councillors.

RECOMMENDED that the Committees Terms of Reference are updated at Paragraph 5, Annexe 1 to Part 3 of the Constitution, as provided in Appendix A to the committee report, are approved by Full Council.

RESOLVED, subject to the recommendation, above:

a)    That the Committee appoint three Sub-Committees (hereafter referred to as “Hearing Panels”) each with three Members with the delegated powers detailed in Appendix C to the committee report and with the proposed membership as set out in Appendix D to the committee report;

b)    That alternative arrangements be made for the appointment of Members of the Hearing Panels in accordance with the powers set out in section 17 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and the provisions of the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990;

c)    That the alternative arrangements provide that, subject to paragraph (d) below, the membership of the Hearing Panels shall not be politically balanced;

d)    That the Chairs of Hearing Panels be appointed on the day of the meeting and that membership should comprise members drawn from at least two different political parties;

e)    That the appointed Hearing Panels be restricted in that they may not further delegate any of their powers to an officer of the Council or any other body

f)     That the Hearing Panels adopt the Local Hearing Procedure as included at Appendix E to the committee report as its terms of reference for hearings related to standards matters and, in accordance with that Procedure, that the Chair of the Hearings Panel is delegated the right to depart from the arrangements (as referenced in paragraph (g) below) where he/she considers that it is expedient to do so in order to secure the effective and fair consideration of any matter

g)    That the arrangements for dealing with standards allegations under the Localism Act 2011 be updated as provided at Appendix F to the committee report