Issue - meetings

To consider a confidential report (copy enclosed) which gives the Committee an overview of the findings from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales’s Annual Report for 2011/12 entitled ‘Improving Access: Delivering Improvement’.

The MO introduced a report which gave an overview of the findings from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales’s Annual Report for 2011/12, entitled ‘Improving Access: Delivering Improvement’. The report had originally been identified as a confidential item but as the Ombudsman’s Annual Report was available to the public it was determined that this item could be considered under Part 1, the phase of the meeting open to the public.

The report gave details of a 49% increase in the number of Code of Conduct complaints lodged from the previous year, with 412 separate complaints received. 39% of these complaints related to matters of ‘equality and respect’ and 25% related to ‘objectivity and propriety’. Of these complaints, 270 were closed after initial consideration.

The Ombudsman identified that many of the complaints received concerned town and community councils, with Prestatyn Town Council specifically named as the source of a disproportionately large number of complaints. This was attributable to a small group of councillors and certain members of the public. The Ombudsman had corresponded with the Clerk of Prestatyn Town Council in an attempt to address the culture of triviality and hostility and an agreement for conduct between members had been developed. The election of 10 new members to the town council was also hoped to have a positive impact in changing the culture on the council.

The MO observed that the Ombudsman’s report gave a clear message that improper use of the complaints mechanism was unacceptable and that the Ombudsman’s office would take measures to discourage the submission of baseless complaints. The Report also gave further details of the procedural changes and the introduction of a cap on indemnities that had been mentioned in the discussion of Item 6.

A total of nine Code of Conduct complaints had been made against DCC in 2011/12, five of which had not been followed up. It was considered appropriate to enter Part 2 of the meeting in order to discuss these complaints in proper detail.

RESOLVED – that the members of the Standards Committee note the contents of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales’s Annual Report 2011/12.