Agenda item

To consider a report by the Monitoring Officer (copy enclosed) on the Annual Report of the Adjudication Panel for Wales 2012/13 which had been published in February, 2014.

 

A copy of a report by the Monitoring Officer (MO), on the Annual Report of the Adjudication Panel for Wales 2012/13 which had been published in February, 2014, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

 

The report provided an overview of the work of the Adjudication Panel for Wales (APW) and contained summaries of the cases and appeals it had dealt with over the last year.  The report had been included as Appendix.

 

The MO explained that the APW, set up under the Local Government Act 2000, had two statutory functions.  The first to form case or interim case tribunals to consider reports from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) following the investigation of allegations that a Member had failed to comply with the relevant Authority’s Code of Conduct.  The most serious allegations of breaches of the Members’ Code of Conduct were considered by the APW.  The second function was to consider appeals from Members against the decisions of local Standards Committees following a referral by the PSOW.

 

During 2012/13 the APW had received five new referrals and four cases carried over from the previous financial year 2011/12.  Seven of the cases had been heard during the period covered by the report and summaries had been provided.  Five hearings had been summarised in the report, with the matter relating to Coedpoeth Community Council having involved three of the complaints. 

 

The APW had received one appeal against a decision of a local Standards Committee and a summary of the case had been set out in the report.  All the cases had involved findings that the Member concerned had by their actions brought their office or Authority into disrepute, and two had breached the requirement to show respect and consideration to others.  This had been consistent with the general themes emerging from the analysis set out in the report of the different types of misconduct considered by the Panel since 2002.  The three most prevalent areas of misconduct had been:-

 

Paragraph 6, bringing the office or authority into disrepute.

Paragraph 4, failing to show respect, having regard to equality of opportunity and bullying.

Paragraphs 11 and 14, declaration of interests.

 

Three of the matters had been breaches involving the use of social media by Members.  One of the cases summarised related to a former Denbighshire Councillor and a full report had been included on the Panel's website.  As an annex to the report the APW had provided a summary of the sanctions imposed by the case tribunals and appeal tribunals in the period October, 2002 to March, 2013.  Significant sanctions had been imposed by the APW during that period and only a minority of matters had not resulted in suspension or disqualification.

 

The MO provided a detailed summary of the APW Annual Report which included:-

 

·                 Local Government Act 2000.

·                 Principles of Conduct Code of Conduct.

·                 Role of the PPSOW.

·                 Role of the APW.

·                 Membership details of the APW.

·                 Allegations of misconduct:-

-    Overview

-    Summary of Case Tribunals 2012 - 2013

-    Summary of Appeals Tribunals 2012 - 2013

-    On-going Cases

·                 Overview of procedures.

·                 Support Unit.

 

Matters arising from discussion included:-

 

-  The provision of equality training for Elected Members, and a report to County Council requesting guidance as whether or not such training should be mandatory.

-  Councillor W.L. Cowie highlighted the importance of Elected Members ensuring that any comments made verbally or written did not breach the Code of Conduct.

-  The Deputy MO referred to Page 12 of the report, Figure 3: Breaches by type October to March, 2013.  She invited attention to sections relating to “Failed to lead by example (local provision)” and “Failure to have regard for Standards Committee advice”, and explained that it appeared that some Local Authorities in Wales had amended their Code of Conduct accordingly.  The MO agreed to provide clarification regarding the two local provisions through the Monitoring Officers Network.

-  In response to a question from the Chair, the MO confirmed that there was very little variance between the different Codes of Conduct of the various Local Authorities.

-  The MO explained that there was a requirement in the Act to have a Code of Conduct which must incorporate all the provisions of the model Code to which additions could be included.

-  In reply to a question from the Chair, the MO agreed to provide details of how many of the cases listed in the report had been subject to an appeal to the High Court.  The MO explained that details of the full judgements were available on the APW website.

 

Following further discussion, it was:-

         

RESOLVED –that the:-

 

(a)            Standards Committee receives and notes the contents of the Annual Report of the Adjudication Panel for Wales, and

(b)            Monitoring Officer seek clarification in respect of:-

 

-                  the number of cases listed in the report which had been subject to a High Court appeal.

-                  the sections in the Figure 3: Breaches by type October to March, 2013,which related to “Failed to lead by example (local provision)” and “Failure to have regard for Standards Committee advice”.

  (G. Williams to Action)