Issue - meetings

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

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

(c)        That the Chair and Mark Morgan attend the Group Leader’s Ethical Liaison meeting and provide feedback to the Standards Committee.

The Monitoring Officer presented the report and explained that the Committee on Standards in Public Life recommended that the Chair and Vice Chair of the Standards Committee met periodically with senior Members of the Council to discuss ethical issues.

At the last meeting the principal topic of discussion was the forthcoming statutory duty on Group Leaders to promote good standards of behaviour.  The primary focus was on training/induction and Group Leaders agreed a number of actions to assist in the Induction Programme for Members after the elections in May 2022.  There was insufficient time to discuss how the Committee would report on the performance of the duty and that should be discussed at the next Ethical Liaison meeting.

An early draft of the statutory guidance in respect of the Group Leaders’ duty had been received and gave a good indication of what would be expected under the new duty and could help frame the expectations of Group Leaders against which the Committee would report.

The draft statutory guidance suggested that failure to fully comply with the duty might be regarded as bringing the office of Group Leader into disrepute, so it was necessary to be precise about what could reasonably be expected of Group Leaders.  For example, the new duty did not make Group Leaders responsible for the behaviour of their group members, so a breach of the code by a Group member should not necessarily reflect on the Leader of that Group.

Details of the standards that appeared to be those against which levels of compliance should be reported were outlined in the report.  Also outlined in the report was the suggested wording to be used on reporting to the Committee.

Gill Murgatroyd suggested that the Standards Committee could meet to suggest proposals to be added to the report prior to the next Ethical Liaison Meeting.  She also referred to paragraph 1.07 in the report and sought clarification around the reference to paragraph 3.7 in the first sentence.  The Monitoring Officer explained this was a typographical error and should read 3.5. She also sought confirmation that the Committee referred to in the first sentence was the Standards Committee.  Gill Murgatroyd referred to page 25 of the report and said paragraph 2.7 appeared to be missing.  The Monitoring Officer said this was as received and was an error in the draft document.

In response to the questions and comments from Councillor Gladys Healey the Monitoring Officer advised that it had been agreed with Group Leaders that all Councillors would attend training on the Code of Conduct.

In response to the comments by Mark Morgan regarding a timetable and the number of reports, the Monitoring Officer explained there would be one report and part of that would be information on how well Group Leaders were doing.  The Monitoring Officer responded to the comments raised by the Chair and Mark Morgan around the reporting process, non-compliance and presentation of the Annual Report.

Councillor Gladys Healey commented on the Race Equality Action Plan  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36