Issue - meetings

Rolling Review of the Councillors Code of Conduct

To approve the changes to the Code of Conduct for Councillors that have been recommended by the Standards Committee as part of the rolling review of the Constitution.

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED:

(a) That the proposed amendments to the Councillors’ Code of Conduct be

approved; and

(b) That a report on the potential to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for all Councillors be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee.

Minutes:

The Chief Officer (Governance) presented the report. He provided background information and reported on the main considerations as detailed in the report. The Committee was asked to consider and approve the changes to the Code of Conduct that had been recommended by the Standards Committee as part of the rolling review of the Constitution. The recommended changes were outlined in section 1.01 of the report and the wording necessary to implement the changes was added to the Code of Conduct as draft changes in Appendix 1. A clean copy of the “finished version” was provided in Appendix 2.

The Chief Officer responded to the questions and comments raised by Members concerning the definition of a ‘criminal offence/behaviour’ as referred to in the recommended changes paragraph 1.01 (vi). He explained that there was an obligation in the Code of Conduct for Councillors to report a matter of criminal offence/behaviour which would then be passed to the proper authority to take appropriate action. The Chief Officer explained that any Councillor who committed a criminal offence/behaviour would be subject to criminal law and if convicted would also be subject to investigation by the Public Service Ombusdsman for Wales.

Councillor Bernie Attridge suggested that a requirement be included in the Code of Conduct that all Members had an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in place at the start of term of office. The Chief Officer responded to the points made by Councillor Attridge and explained that he would submit a report to a future meeting of the Committee to inform of the legal advice on which positions within the Council a DBS check could be undertaken for and on the need for a future policy. The Chair proposed that this be included as an item on the Forward Work Programme for the Committee to consider and this was seconded by Councillor Ted Palmer. When put to the vote this was carried.

The following recommendations were moved by Councillors Ted Palmer and seconded by Councillor Ian Hodge.