Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting - Online access

Contact: Karen Shepherd  07766 778286

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Items
No. Item

7.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence

Minutes:

None received.

 

As the Chairman was initially unable to access the virtual meeting, Councillor Shelim assumed the Chair as Vice Chairman.

 

8.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 101 KB

To receive any declarations of interest

Minutes:

None received.

9.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 195 KB

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 12 April 2021

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 April 2021 be approved.

10.

Monitoring Officer Annual Report pdf icon PDF 209 KB

To consider the above report

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered the Annual Report from the Monitoring Officer.

 

Emma Duncan, Monitoring Officer introduced her report. She explained that the report had been prepared in conjunction with the other statutory officers (the Head of Paid Service and Section 151 officer and their deputies). As Members would be aware, the borough had recently focussed on growing the robustness of the governance framework, and that work was ongoing. The Peer Review had supported this focus, alongside use of the Centre for Governance And Scrutiny Risk and Resilience Framework.

 

The Monitoring Officer took Members through the main sections in the report. In relation to ‘maintaining the constitution’, the cross-party Constitution Working Group had met during the year to consider issues put forward by Members, officers, and suggestions from outside the council, which had resulted in recommendations to full Council. In relation to ‘ensuring lawfulness and fairness in decision making’ officers in legal services and democratic services were regularly asked to give advice and the statutory officers reviewed all reports to Cabinet and other decision-making meetings in advance of publication. Counsel opinion had been sought on a number of areas where unlawful decisions had been allegedly made.

 

The Monitoring Officer highlighted an issue detailed in the report about regulated payments. She had made one Section 5 report to Cabinet in relation to a delegated decision; the issue had also been considered by the Audit and Governance Committee. A number of judicial reviews of council decisions had been started and the council had taken advice from external counsel to inform any subsequent actions for the Monitoring Officer.

 

Members noted that the Monitoring Officer was a member of the Corporate Leadership Team, the Directors’ Group and the Statutory Governance Officers Group. These groups met regularly to discuss relevant issues ensuring all  had a good grip on governance issues. Bothe legal services and democratic services helped to keep a watching brief on the decision-making structures of the council. The move to bring the legal services team back in-house had strengthened this approach and helped to ensure issues were identified at an early stage.

 

It was acknowledged that there had been some issues with the recording of delegated authority decisions. The appropriate processes and guidance were in place, but compliance remained an issue. This was therefore an area of focus for the coming year. Training with the Corporate Leadership Team would be undertaken.

 

There had been no cases of maladministration during the year. There had been one instance of a disclosure of confidential information. Both officers and Members had been reminded of their obligations under the Code of Conduct.

 

Both officers and Cabinet could only take decisions within the budget and policy framework. Both the Monitoring Officer and Section 151 officer regularly reviewed this and reported any issues, for example the Section 5 report to Cabinet earlier in the year. Capacity in the officer cohort had increased and the statutory officer group comprised excellent officers who knew the governance framework well. This progress had been recognised in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Members' Code of Conduct - Constitution Updates June 2022 pdf icon PDF 234 KB

To consider the above report

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered recommending to full Council a number of amendments to the Members’ Code of Conduct.

 

Emma Duncan, Monitoring Officer, reminded Members that the Council adopted the Local Government Association (LGA) Model Code of Conduct in May 2021. Since that time the LGA had made minor amendments to the Code to make it clearer.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Member Standards Panel notes the report and recommends to full Council the proposed amendments detailed in Appendix B.