Issue - meetings

That the proposed amendments to the Councillors’ Code of Conduct be approved.

The Monitoring Officer introduced a report to agree the precise drafting of changes that were agreed in principle as part of the rolling review of the Constitution at the November 2022 meeting.    He referred to the main points and explained that at the meeting in November the Standards Committee had considered, as part of its rolling review of the Constitution, whether to amend the Councillors’ Code of Conduct and specifically whether to adopt the recommended changes in the Penn Review before the Welsh Government legislated for them. The Committee resolved to adopt the changes as detailed in paragraph 1.01 of the report in principle and to consider the revised drafting during this meeting.  The wording necessary to implement the changes had been added to the code of conduct in draft changes for ease of reference and were shown in Appendix 1.  The Committee could see the “finished version” in Appendix 2

The Chair referred to Appendix 1, page 28, paragraph 17 (2), and sought clarification on the reference to gifts and hospitality.  The Monitoring Officer explained that this was a previous amendment to the Code and had been approved.  The Chair also referred to page 14, Interpretation, and suggested that the wording under “relevant authority” be amended to include reference to a city town or community council. 

The recommendation in the report was moved by Ian Papworth and seconded by David Davies with the addition of the above amendments,

RESOLVED:

That the proposed amendments to the Councillors’ Code of Conduct be approved.