New Standards Regime
The Localism Act 2011 (the Act) makes fundamental changes to the
system of regulation of standards of conduct for elected and
co-opted Members and is effective from 1st July 2012.
The Authority has a statutory duty under the Act to promote and
maintain high standards of conduct by Members.
Although there is no statutory requirement for
the Council to have a Standards
Committee, the Council has agreed to establish a new Standards
Committee which will continue to deal with standards issues and
case-work. As required by legislation, it has appointed an Independent Person, Mr David Tweddle, to assist
the Council in promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct
amongst its elected members and town and parish councillors. Mrs
Pat Ford has been appointed as the reserve Independent Person.
Although the Independent Person will no longer
be a member of the new Standards Committee under the Government’s
new arrangements, their role will be to be consulted on the
decision to investigate complaints and before it makes a decision
on an investigated complaint. They may also be consulted on
other standards matters, including by the member who is subject to
an allegation.
The District Council will
also continue to have responsibility for dealing with standards
complaints against elected and appointed members of Parish
Councils, and wishes to continue to involve Parish Council
representatives. It has agreed to the co-option of up to
three non-voting Parish Council representatives onto the
Committee.
One of the main areas
of change introduced by the Act, impacts on the kind of interests
which elected Members and co-optees to the Council must disclose
(called disclosable pecuniary interests) and the fact that, from 1
July 2012, it becomes a criminal offence for a Member, or co-optee,
to fail to notify this type of interest. There are also a
number of other interests which the Council has decided its Members
and co-optees must also disclose on its register.
As a consequence of these new requirements,
the Council has agreed a revised Code of
Conduct . As well as setting out the seven principles
which will apply whenever a person is acting in his/her capacity as
a Member, or co-opted member, of the Council when conducting the
Authority’s business or acting as a representative of the
Authority, it also covers the interests which they are required to
disclose.
As well as holding Registers of Disclosable
Interests for its elected Members and co-optees, the Council also
publishes this information on its website. Interests declared by
the Council’s elected Members are available to view individually by
following the link to that Member’s contact information, as are
interests declared by the Council’s co-optees.
Similarly, the Council holds a copy of the
Parish/ Town Council’ Registers as well as these being available
for inspection at the relevant Parish/ Town Council offices. The
Act now requires these Registers to be published on the District
Council’s website and these are available to view on the Parish
Council's page of this Website. Parish/ Town Council’s which
have websites must also publish their Registers electronically.