Issue - meetings

The Monitoring Officer presented the Cases and Work Update – 2023-24 report which was a regular report updating Committee on complaints received since the last meeting and on training undertaken or identified as being of assistance to Councillors in understanding the Standard’s regime and the actions taken to meet those training needs.

The Monitoring Officer said that thirteen complaints had been considered or were in the process of being considered during the period. She referred the Group to the table at Appendix A which set out the nature of the complaints and the decision or action taken and she confirmed that all had been discussed with the Independent Persons. She explained that details were not disclosed for complaints which did not come under the Code of Conduct.

The Monitoring Officer said that the Council had committed to support the LGA Debate not Hate campaign and that the Leader has signed their public statement on behalf of the Council. She said that it was for this committee to decide how this would be taken forward by the Council.

The Monitoring Officer said that this was an important topic as many Councillors were declaring that they would not stand again for election due to the abuse they had received and she noted that the LGA were campaigning for Councillor addresses to be withheld from the public. She said that she would report on any progress at the next meeting.

In relation to training, the Monitoring Officer explained that Induction Training had been made available to all Councillors following the elections in May 2023, including introductory training about Standards. The Induction Training had been attended by 28 Councillors, with only four new Councillors being unable to attend. All had been offered the opportunity to have catch up training with Officers separately, and presentation materials from the training sessions were available to all Councillors on their Intranet. She confirmed that the Standards Training had been well attended with only one Standards Committee member being unable to attend.

In relation to the Member Code of Conduct, the Monitoring Officer confirmed that the Committee was required to review it on an annual basis and as such it would be an agenda item at the next meeting of this Committee. She said that the Code of Conduct had last been reviewed by a Working Group following publication of the LGA Model Code, and that the Working Group had recommended changes to more closely align the Rushcliffe Code with the LGA Model Code. She suggested that the Council update its Code when the LGA updated their Model Code but thought it prudent for the Council to continue to review its code annually to ensure that it remained fit for purpose.

The Monitoring Officer said that Members of the Group could suggest other items of business for this Committee to review or explore and any training that it may consider appropriate.

Councillor Plant asked about Code of Conduct training for parishes as she noted that many of the complaints  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3