Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared. A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates. If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part

of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on any item or simply

observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chair proposed to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the

Chairman of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard

before a decision on that item is taken.

There were no Members present under Standing Order 34.

There was no Chair’s correspondence.

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The Monitoring Officer presented the report and explained that the purpose of the report was to place before Members the Local Government Association’s (“LGA”) Model Code of Conduct, plus supporting guidance, for the Committee to consider adoption of the Code in whole or in part along with the connected guidance.

The Monitoring Officer explained that it was anticipated that the new Code of Conduct and guidance would be adopted by Full Council in April 2023 and be available for the Member’s induction following the May 2023 elections.

The Monitoring Officer provided context to the report and commented that the Borough Council’s Independent Person was also an Independent Person for a number of other local authorities include Tower of Hamlets and City of London and it was noted that the Borough Council a higher number of complaints than those other councils and highlighted that the Council needed to take stock of this and provided an overview of the role of the Standards Committee and Monitoring Officer to promote high standards of conduct.

The Committee was invited to consider the LGA Model Code of Conduct and guidance.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the key issues and options considered as set out in the report.

The Monitoring Officer explained that if the Council was to adopt the LGA Model Code of Conduct there were a number of provisions within the current Code which were worth maintaining.

Respect

Within the Council’s current Code but was expanded in the LGA code and the model code gave a behaviour with commentary and was backed up by guidance which provided an understanding of what was expected by Councillors and also assisted the Monitoring Officer when assessing conduct – generally, the model code provided commentary, content and context around what was meant by that behaviour.

Disclosure of Interests

Complicated in terms of what was proposed in the Model Code and was moving away from what had previously been adopted by the Council.  The new code was introducing different classes of interests.  It was noted that the Council had always had pecuniary interests but there was work to be undertaken particularly around how Members dealt with other interests that weren’t pecuniary interests as there was a lack of understanding on when to declare an interest.  A training session would be scheduled when required.

The Monitoring Officer provided a summary of the key changes, a summary of which is set out below

Confidentiality

Included in the Member/Officer Protocol but not included in the Borough Council’s current Code of Conduct and consideration to be given to including confidentiality in the new Code of Conduct.

Disrepute

Included in the Member/Officer Protocol but not included in the Borough Council’s Code of Conduct.  A number of councils had included this provision of bringing the Council into disrepute in its code of conduct and it might be worth looking at whether the Council wished to bring the concept into its Code of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To be convened when required.

The next meeting of the Standards Committee will be held on 30 November 2022 at 10 am in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, King’s Lynn.