Issue - meetings

To share the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) Annual Letter 2020/21

That having had regard to the PSOW’s annual letter and having noted that the

complaints submitted during 2020/21 either led to findings of no evidence of a

breach of the Code, or were discontinued or withdrawn, the Committee

concludes that no action was needed.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer introduced the report to share the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) Annual Letter 2020/21.  He provided background information and advised that the Letter was appended to the report.  The Letter must be presented to the Council’s Cabinet to assist in their scrutiny of the Council’s performance and actions related to that were to be reported back to the PSOW by 15 November 2021. 

The Deputy Monitoring Officer reported on the key considerations as detailed in the report.  In respect of the number of Code complaints that were closed during the year relating to Flintshire County Councillors, there was 1 in total for which a finding of no evidence of a breach was made.  In respect of the number of Code complaints that were closed during the year relating to Town and Community Councillors in Flintshire, there were 11 in total, 9 of which led to findings of no evidence of breach, 1 was discontinued and 1 was withdrawn.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer advised that the Annual Letter explained that the PSOW had introduced a new  publication called ‘Our Findings’.  The publication replaced the quarterly case books for both cases relating to services and Code of Conduct cases and would be updated regularly.   There were currently no additional cases contained on the ‘Our Findings’ publication.

The Monitoring Officer explained that there was no comparative data/benchmarking regarding ethical complaints between councillors.  It was agreed that the Monitoring Officer would discuss this with Monitoring Officers in other Councils to consider putting forward a joint request to the PSOW for  information to be made available.

The recommendation was moved by Councillor Arnold Woolley and seconded by Phillipa Earlam.

RESOLVED:

That having had regard to the PSOW’s annual letter and having noted that the

complaints submitted during 2020/21 either led to findings of no evidence of a

breach of the Code, or were discontinued or withdrawn, the Committee

concludes that no action was needed.