Issue - meetings

To inform Members about the All Wales Standards Conference 2022 that took place on Wednesday 9th February.

That the report on the conference is welcomed and that the Committee agrees to incorporate work arising from the Penn Review of the Ethical Regime into its work programme as it arises.

The Chief Officer (Governance) confirmed that the conferences were held bi-annually, though the 2020 conference had been delayed until this year. The conferences were organised by the monitoring officers in each region with this year being the turn of North Wales. The focus was on the Penn Report which was the biggest and most comprehensive review of the Code of Conduct since it was introduced by the Local Government Act 2000.

            He provided a detailed overview of the conference and a summary of the recommendations and resolution made, with parts requiring changes to legislation and parts which could be adopted voluntarily. Discussions were being held during the summer with Welsh Government (WG) on the changes to legislation.

            The Chair recommended that members of the Committee attend the next one to listen to views of other authorities, Ombudsman and other speakers. She provided a detailed review of the presentations, the topics discussed and sharing of good practice which included a discussion around the Code of Conduct. The conference was recorded, and the Chair asked if this could be shared.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed it was Gwynedd who hosted the Zoom session and he would investigate it. The next conference would be held in South Wales in 2024.

            Gill Murgatroyd had also attended and said it was very informative and helpful.  She referred to the discussions with the Adjudication Panel for Wales and WG representatives? around timescales for the recommendations of the Penn Review and asked if the Monitoring Officer was able to comment on this. The Monitoring Officer confirmed that he would be meeting with WG and the Ombudsman’s office over the summer to discuss how this could be taken forward and implemented.

            David Davies asked if there was a sense that WG would accept all the Penn recommendations or would there be political resistance. The Monitoring Officer said that the Deputy Director for Local Government attended but gave no indication of likelihood of acceptance of specific recommendations pending discussion with affected stakeholders.

The recommendation in the report was moved and seconded by Jacqueline Guest and Gill Murgatroyd

RESOLVED:

That the report on the conference is welcomed and that the Committee agrees to incorporate work arising from the Penn Review of the Ethical Regime into its work programme as it arises.