Issue - meetings

To plan the agenda for the Chair of the Standards Committee’s meeting with the Chair and Leader of the Council and Group Leaders.

(a)       That the draft agenda for the next Ethical Liaison Meeting be agreed; and

(b)       That the final agenda be agreed by the Chief Officer (Governance) in consultation with the parties to the meeting.

The Monitoring Officer presented the report to plan the agenda for the meeting between the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Standards Committee, the Chair and Leader of the County Council and Group Leaders.  The following suggestions were put forward for consideration:

·         Outcome of the Independent Member visits to Council meetings.

·         New legislative duties to be implemented in 2022 on which draft guidance from the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) was shared privately (paragraph 15 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended)).

·         To support the new duties, the suggestion that returning elected Members be involved in the induction process for new Members and that training sessions be held for each political group, supported by Group Leaders.

Whilst the Committee had not received a report on the outcome of all visits to Council meetings, the points raised had been summarised in the minutes of previous meetings.  The Chair noted that the inclusion of a procedural note on all formal agendas had been one of the recommendations from the feedback and that this was in place already.

In response to a question from Gill Murgatroyd, the Monitoring Officer provided clarification on the resource implications of the suggested training.

The recommendations put forward by the Monitoring Officer were moved by Councillor Gladys Healey.  In seconding the Motion, Phillipa Earlam thanked the Chair, Vice-Chair and Monitoring Officer for their work on this matter and for their attendance at the North Wales Standards Committees Forum.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the draft agenda for the next Ethical Liaison Meeting be agreed; and

(b)       That the final agenda be agreed by the Chief Officer (Governance) in consultation with the parties to the meeting.