Issue - meetings

That the matters relating to the Code of Conduct Complaints reported in the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales Annual Report be noted.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer presented a report which summarised the main issues from the Annual Report of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) in relation to standards of county and town/community councils.  A breakdown of closed Code of Conduct complaints (CCC) for each council was appended to the report.

It was stated that the 14% increase in Code of Conduct complaints was wholly due to a significant rise in complaints about the behaviour of town/community councillors, with the majority relating to the promotion of equality and respect.  Whilst most of the CCCs had been closed after initial consideration, there was a decrease in the number of complaints closed after full investigation.  Of the three cases which had been referred to the Adjudication Panel for Wales (APW), serious breaches were found in two.

The Monitoring Officer gave a reminder that detailed information was available in the Ombudsman’s Casebook.  Although there was an increase in complaints, this was still a low percentage given the total number of town/community councils in Wales.  It was noted that the statistics quoted in each annual report included some cases overlapping between years.

In response to comments from Councillor Johnson on the varying nature of complaints, the Monitoring Officer said that the introduction of the Local Resolution Procedures helped to filter out low-level complaints.

When asked by Phillipa Earlam, the Monitoring Officer reported that there were a low number of complaints received in Flintshire and that an update would be scheduled on the Forward Work Programme.

RESOLVED:

That the matters relating to the Code of Conduct Complaints reported in the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales Annual Report be noted.