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AGENDA ITEM NO. 4

REPORT TO:Standards Committee

REPORT NO:CLAO/09/05

DATE:2 March 2005

LEAD OFFICER:Chief Legal and Administration Officer/Monitoring

Officer

CONTACT OFFICER:Debbie Pennington (Ext 2234)

SUBJECT:Tenth Report of the Committee on Standards in Public

Life - "Getting the Balance Right - Implementing

Standards of Conduct in Public Life"

WARD:N/A

1.PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

To advise Members of the issue of the above report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

2. INFORMATION

2.1At its meeting on 7 April 2004, the Standards Committee considered a consultation paper from the Committee on Standards in Public Life in respect of its inquiry into standards of conduct. The Standards Committee approved a response to the consultation paper which was submitted on the Committee's behalf by the Chief Legal and Administration Officer. The Standards Committee of Wrexham County Borough Council is listed as a contributor in Appendix B of the full report.

2.2The Committee on Standards in Public Life has completed the inquiry and issued its report on 19 January 2005. A copy of the summary report is attached to this report at Appendix 1, for Members' information. The full report is available from the Committee's website at

2.3The Committee identified three key issues during its inquiry. These are trust in public authorities, governance arrangements and regulatory burdens. The recommendations made in the Committee's report aim to address these issues. Paragraph 3 of the summary report, relating to the ethical framework, and paragraph 4 relating to organisational culture will be of most interest to Members of the Standards Committee.

2.4Ethical Standards

2.4.1The report acknowledges that the vast majority of Councillors and Officers observe high standards of conduct. It also recognises that there is the potential for unnecessary regulatory burden and makes recommendations on amendment to the English Code of Conduct.

2.4.2The report concentrates on problems experienced with England's standards regime. Whilst it recognises that similar problems have not been experienced in Wales due to a variety of reasons (eg different system, less councillors), some of the principles referred to are equally applicable in Wales. For example recommendation 18 (R18, page 10) suggests that local Standards Committees should 'sift' all complaints initially to decide whether a matter can be investigated at local level or referred to the appropriate regulator. In Wales, the Ombudsman has indicated this could be adopted in respect of community council complaints. In addition the report suggests that the English system could benefit from adopting some of the practices used in Wales, e.g. determination of most complaints at a local level, and a robust approach to trivial or vexatious complaints (see Recommendation R21, page 11).

2.4.3Other interesting recommendations on the English system are R16 (page 10) which states that parish councils should have the same principles of conduct as other tiers of local government and R28 (page 12) which suggests that the English Code of Conduct should be amended to allow members of a planning committee to speak but not vote on issues in which they have a personal or prejudicial interest, in order to represent their constituents. The Standards Committee had commented in its response to the Inquiry that it considered there should be a different code for community councillors. The full report recognises that there has been more of a problem with this in England than in Wales because the English Code required parish Councillors to generally register particular types of interests which did not apply in Wales. However, the full report states that one code for all tiers of local government ensures consistency and common standards and that members of the public would not expect different standards of behaviour. Further, whilst members of the Standards Committee had considered that the ability of a member to speak but not vote on a matter under the Welsh code may lead to confusion, the report recommends the introduction of similar facilities in England (R27 and R28, page 12) to allow greater representation of constituents.

2.4.4R31 and R32 (page 12) recommend use by all authorities of the Audit Commission/Standards Board Ethical Governance Audit tool kits to ensure ethical standards, and the development of model training and development facilities for Monitoring Officers and Standards Committees in dealing with complaints.

2.4.5R29 (page 12) recommends that the three regulators for England, Wales and Scotland respectively put formal arrangements in place to share experience and best practice. The full report acknowledges the work of a working group set up in Wales to review the Welsh Code of Conduct and to make recommendations to the Welsh Assembly Government for revisions of it.

2.5Organisational Culture

2.5.1The report identifies three key concepts required to embed high standards of propriety in organisational culture. These are training and development, governance arrangements for managing conflicts of interest and actively challenging inappropriate behaviour through whistleblowing.

2.5.2R38 (page 14) recommends that leaders of public bodies should reiterate their commitment to the implementation of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (which provides statutory employment protection for 'whistleblowers'). The Standards Committee will recall that the Council has recently adopted an updated Whistleblowing Policy. Further it is hoped to arrange training for senior officers on handling whistleblowing in the near future.

  1. RECOMMENDATION

3.1That Members note the contents of the report.

4.BACKGROUND PAPERS

APPENDIX 1 - Summary of Tenth Report "Getting the Balance Right - Implementing Standards of

Conduct in Public Life'.

5.WEBSITE INFORMATION