Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair of the Committee until the next Annual Council meeting

RESOLVED – That Mr Stephen Clarke be elected Chair of the Committee for the period until the next Annual Council Meeting.

To appoint a Vice-Chair of the Committee until the next Annual Council meeting.

RESOLVED – That Mr Kieran McMahon be appointed Vice-Chair of the Committee for the period until the next Annual Council Meeting.

To approve as a correct record and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2012

The Minutes (copies of which had been circulated) of the meeting held on 21 February 2012 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Members and officers to declare any interests which they have in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made.

Members of the public are invited to put questions to the Chair of the Committee on any matters within the powers and duties of the Committee, subject to the exclusions set out in the Code of Practice (Questions must be submitted prior to the commencement of the meeting on the cards provided. These are available the meeting and at local libraries and information centres.  You can also submit via the Council’s website at www.stockport.gov.uk/publicquestions.

No questions were submitted.

To consider a report of the Monitoring Officer.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) updating the Committee on The Localism Act 2011 and the New Code of Conduct for Members including the arrangements for dealing with complaints. The Act made fundamental changes to the system of regulation of standards of conduct for elected members and co-opted members of the Council.  In order to ensure that the Council had compliant arrangements in place for the statutory deadline of the 1 July 2012, the Council had already approved interim arrangements.   The report provided details of the final arrangements, subject to the passing of the relevant Statutory Instrument.

 It was reported that the Council Meeting on 5 July 2012 had:

·         Adopted the recommended Code of Conduct for Members as set out in Appendix 1 of the report, subject to deletion of paragraph 3.2 ‘Training’.

·         Adopted the recommended local arrangements to handle complains about breaches of the Code of Conduct for Members of Stockport Council as set out in Appendix 2 of the report.

·         Note the additional information submitted in relation to Parts 2 and 3 of the Code of Conduct following the recent publication of Statutory Instruments.

The Standards Committee noted that the Council Meeting on 22 March 2012 had agreed to:

·         Retain a Standards Committee comprising of:

o   four Councillors appointed on a politically proportionate basis;

o   such number of Independent members as may be sufficient to ensure a majority of Independent Members;

·         Substitutes should not be permitted.

·         The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Standards Committee should both be Independent Members.

·         The Standards Committee should be exempt from the proportionality calculation under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

·         Appoint one Sub Committee to hold a hearing at which the member complained of may respond to the investigation report and the Sub Committee can determine whether the member did fail to comply with the Code and what action, if any is appropriate. The Sub Committee should comprise of five members of the Standards Committee.

·         The quorum for meetings of the Standards Committee or Sub Committee shall be 3 members including a majority of independent members.

·         Appoint two ‘Independent Persons’ and that an allowance should be paid (and although outside the Members Allowance Scheme, the Independent Remuneration Panel be requested to consider what an appropriate allowance might be).

·         Authorised to commence the advertisement process as soon as possible to ensure that the role is filled when the new provisions come into force, with a Panel consisting of the Monitoring Officer, and two members of the Standards Committee to short-list and interview candidates and to make a recommendation to Council Meeting on appointment.

·         Candidates should have a good understanding of the Standards Regime/ providing advice.

Members made the following comments:

·         It was disappointing that the Independent Members were ‘non-voting’ members of the Standards Committee.

·         Information needed to be available on the Council website in relation to how members of the public can make a complaint.

It was reported that the timetable for the appointment of the Standards Committee’ Independent Persons is as follows:-

·         Advert. In the ‘Stockport Express’ 11 July

·         Closing Date for applications – 27 July

·         Shortlisting – Applications will be sent to the interview Panel for consideration.

·         Interviews – 10 August at 10am (venue to be confirmed)

·         Nominations for appointment considered by Council Meeting – 16 August

RESOLVED – (1) That the report be noted.

(2) That the shortlisting/ interview Panel for the appointment of the Standards Committee’ Independent Persons should consist of the following together with Barry Khan in his capacity as Monitoring Officer:

Stephen Clarke

Cllr June Somekh

Cllr Tom Grundy

Cllr Syd Lloyd (subject to availability)