Agenda and minutes

To be notified of the appointment of any Substitute Members.

There were no substitute members.

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 or Dispensations reported.

This is to give further notice in accordance with paragraphs 5(4) and 5(5) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 of the intention to consider item 5 below in private.

The Standards Committee is requested to consider passing the following resolution:

Resolved that under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and having applied a public interest test as defined in Part 3 of Schedule 12A of the Act, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 1 and 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

The Standards Committee was required to consider any representations from the Investigating Officer and/or the Member as to why the Committee should exclude the press and public under the following terms:

“That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and having applied a public interest test as defined in Part 2 of Schedule 12A of the Act, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for items 5-9 of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.”

Cllr Bones requested that the press and public be excluded for these items as some of the information is not currently in the public domain and he also had concerns about any further media coverage that could impact on individuals who are named in the report but are not part of the local authority.

The Investigating Officer was asked for his view and he stated that he had no objections to the press and public being excluded for these items as the matter had not yet been determined and a public statement of the decision would be made available once the matter was decided.

The Chair noted that the items contained exempt information under paragraph 1 of part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act and there was a requirement for the Committee to apply a public interest test and decide whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

On considering the Exclusion Resolution, the Committee voted by 6 votes in favour and 1 vote against to proceed with the hearing in public.

Resolved:  that the Committee hearing proceed in public and the agenda papers be made available.

To consider a report of the investigating officer’s completed investigation into Complaint NT07.2021-22 in accordance with the Authority’s Local Arrangements for dealing with Complaints made under the Code of Conduct for Members’ and Co-opted Members.

The Standards Committee received a report which presented the Investigating Officer’s completed investigation report in relation to an alleged breach of the Members’ Code of Conduct in relation to Complaint NT07/2021-22.

The Authority’s Local Arrangements for the consideration of complaints made against Members under the Code of Conduct for Members and Co-opted Members, required that a completed investigation report be received by the Standards Committee/Standards Sub-Committee to determine the action to be taken with respect to the Complaint.

The Committee considered:

1.   Summary of Allegations

The complainant, Cllr M Wilson, alleges that:

1)       The subject member, Councillor Liam Bones, posted what is described as a manipulated story on his campaigning website ‘North Shields Life’ that wilfully called into question the judgment and political neutrality of the Authority’s then Monitoring Officer (“the MO”), Bryn Roberts, who was the Head of Law and Governance:

2)       The published story caused “enormous damage” to the MO’s professional reputation as evidenced by on-line comments made about the MO in that regard:

3)       The story related to a request from the MO to the then Leader of the Conservative Group, to remove Union Flag bunting and pictures of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher from the Conservative Group room in the Quadrant building.

4)       Councillor Bones has editorial responsibility for ‘North Shields Life’ which targets the political opponents of Councillor Bones, usually local politicians but that this story has “crossed the line” by targeting an officer of the Authority:

5)       Councillor Bones, in addition to publishing the story on the ‘North Shields Life’ website, used paid for advertising on Facebook to promote the article so that it was read by as many local residents as possible.

2.   Relevant Paragraph(s) of the Code of Conduct

The relevant paragraphs of the Code are:

Part 1 Paragraph 1 of the Code – Treating others with Respect

You must treat others with respect, including Authority Officers and other elected members.

Part 1 Paragraph 4 of the Code – Bringing Office or Authority into Disrepute

You must not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing the Authority, or your office as a member of the Authority, into disrepute.

3.  Conduct of the Hearing

The Investigating Officer had found in his report that breaches of the Code of Conduct had occurred in relation to the above Complaint.

The Committee examined the Investigating Officer’s report.

The Committee asked questions of the Investigating Officer in relation to his report.

The Committee heard representations from the Member and asked questions of the Member.

In its deliberations in private, the Committee, having read the papers and heard from both the Investigating Officer and the Subject Member, carefully considered whether one or more breaches of the Code of Conduct had occurred.  In reaching its decision the Sub-Committee took into account the views of the Independent Person.

5.   Findings of Fact

References in brackets below are to paragraph numbers referred to in the

investigator’s report considered by the Committee.

The Sub-Committee made the following  ...  view the full minutes text for item SC9 /22

The Committee considered the Exclusion Resolution.

Resolved: that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and having applied a public interest test as defined in Part 2 of Schedule 12A of the Act, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

The Committee considered the report and information set out as items 10 – 13 of the Agenda in relation to allegation of a breach of the Members’ Code of Conduct NT09.2021-22.

Resolved: that the Committee note the report.