Agenda and draft minutes

To be notified of the appointment of any Substitute Members.

There was not substitute members reported.

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or non-registerable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

You are also invited to disclose any dispensations in relation to any registerable and/or non-registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

Please complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest and dispensations received.

To provide Standards Committee with an opportunity to discuss the Government consultation on proposals to strengthen the standards regime and to formulate a response on behalf of the Authority.

The Standards Committee received a report which provided details of a consultation on Government proposals to strengthen the Standards Regime.

In 2024, the Government launched a public consultation on its proposals to strengthen the standards regime in relation to elected members. The consultation was due to close on 26 February 2025. 

This meeting was scheduled to provide the Standards Committee with an opportunity to discuss the Government’s proposals and to formulate a response on behalf of the Authority. In preparation for the meeting the Monitoring Officer met with the Chair of Standards Committee to discuss a draft response prepared by the Monitoring Officer team.

A number of draft responses were agreed to be brought forward for the approval or variation by the Committee. Those responses were set out in Appendix 1 and the question numbers were listed in point (1) of paragraph 1.2 of the report.

A number of key areas had been left for discussion and agreement at the Committee meeting. The question numbers were listed in point (2) of paragraph 1.2 and the subject areas were summarised in paragraphs 1.3.18 to 1.3.20.9 of the report.

The Monitoring Officer also met with the Independent Persons on 12 February 2025 to gain their insights and share their thoughts. Feedback from that discussion was provided at the Committee meeting (as it post-dated the deadline for publishing the report).

The Standards Committee was responsible for the Authority’s statutory duty to promote and maintain high standards of conduct by the Elected Mayor, Councillors and Co-opted Members.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) was consulting on proposals to strengthen the standards regime for local authority code of conduct breaches in England. The consultation was taking place on-line and the relevant link could be accessed here: Strengthening the standards and conduct framework for local authorities in England - GOV.UK. 

The consultation closed at midnight on 26 February 2025.

The consultation foreword indicated that it was focused on proposed reforms to the standards regime that would contribute to making sure that effective local and strategic authorities were well-governed, with high standards met and maintained. It recognised that it was an honour and a privilege to be elected as a member and with it came an individual and collective responsibility to consistently demonstrate and promote the highest standards of conduct and public service.

The aim of the proposed changes was to give individual authorities appropriate and proportionate means to deal with misconduct effectively and decisively when it did occur and to ensure that anyone could feel confident about raising an issue under the code of conduct whether it impacted them personally and/or was a code conduct breach that brought the reputation of the council into disrepute.

The Localism Act 2011 established the current standards and conduct framework for local authorities.

The current regime required every local authority to adopt a code of conduct, the contents of which must as a minimum be consistent with the 7 ‘Nolan’ principles of standards in public life  ...  view the full minutes text for item SC22 /25

Wednesday, 3 April 2025 at 6.00pm

6.00pm on Thursday 3 April 2025.