Agenda item

The Presiding Member welcomed Andrew Mitchell, Chair of Standards Committee to Council

to provide a summary of the work of the Standards Committee in the preceding 12 months and note the forward work programme.

The Chair was pleased to present the 2022/23 Standards Committee Annual Report to Council.

This was the tenth Annual Report of the Standards Committee setting out the work carried out by the Committee during the past 12 months.

The Annual Report covered a shorter period than usual, from December 2022 to March 2023 and followed on from the last report presented to Council in November 2022. The Annual Report was previously presented to Council on a voluntary basis. However, Section 63 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 introduced an additional statutory duty under Part 3 of the Local Government Act 2000, which required Standards Committee to make an annual report after the end of each financial year and for full Council to consider that report within three months. To support this change, this report considered a brief period that spanned from the time of presenting the last report, to the end of the last financial year. The Chair looked forward to coming back to present the next full Annual Report in the Summer of 2024.

The statutory report summarised how the Committee discharged its functions through consideration of reports and actions or recommendations made by or referred to the Committee. In addition, the Annual Report included an assessment of the extent to which leaders of political groups on the Council have complied with their new duties to promote and maintain high standards of conduct within their groups. The Chair was pleased to note the commitment of Group Leaders to their new duty to report to Standards Committee: whilst this was still in the planning stage during the reporting period, the Group Leaders made clear their commitment to fulfilling this requirement.

The Standards Committee was satisfied that this Annual Report to full Council met the requirements of the 2021 Act. The Standards Committee is committed to promoting high standards of ethical conduct among elected Members and officers to maintain public confidence in local government. The Committee continued to proactively review all ethical standards policies and procedures as part of the forward work programme.

This year, the Chair was pleased to report that no serious complaints of misconduct were referred to the Standards Committee by the Ombudsman during the reporting period and no complaints were referred for determination by the Committee under Stage 3 of the Local Resolution Protocol.  Finally, the Chair took the opportunity to thank all Members of the Committee and Council officers for their advice and support throughout the last 12 months.

Comments of Councillors:

§  Councillor M Howells mentioned that the Standards Committee Annual Report should be presented to Council no more than three months after the financial year as required in the Local Government and Election (Wales) Act 2021 and therefore asked why the report was late. The Monitoring Officer stated that the next Annual report would satisfy the new legislative timescales as set out in this update and would provide some further clarify over the requirements of the legislation after the meeting.

§  The Presiding Member thanked Andrew Mitchell for his work as Chair on the Standards Committee.

Resolved:

Council received the Standards Committee Annual Report for 2022/2023 and noted the forward work programme.