Please supply copies of all supporting documents related to item 39 in the minutes of Devon County Council (DCC) Standards Committee which record the proceedings of this committee on 16 March 2023 as per the item details published at https://democracy.devon.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=34039.
I expect this this to include the report of the Devon County Council Assistant Director of Legal Services containing the following items:
– the report prepared for the meeting of DCC’s standards committee held on 5 July 2022 regarding this issue, presenting in pages 27-126
– the CPS correspondence regarding this issue, presented in pages 127-142
– the correspondence with the subject member, presented in pages 143-176
– the independent person’s comments, presented in pages 177-188
as per the agenda of that meeting published at https://democracy.devon.gov.uk/documents/g4477/Agenda%20frontsheet%2016th-Mar-2023%2014.15%20Standards%20Committee.pdf?T=0.
The Council does hold this information. However, disclosure of this information would prejudice the effective conduct of the public matters of Devon County Council as it would be likely to inhibit the free and frank provision of advice, free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation and would otherwise prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. This information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We also consider this information is exempt under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (Personal Data). Devon County Council are not obliged to provide information that is the personal information of another person if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018. In this instance we believe that the release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore Section 40(2) is applied.
The Monitoring Officer has confirmed that this matter has been concluded and the subject member has complied with the sanctions in full. ‘An elected Member’s Register of Interest is required to declare the current disclosable pecuniary interests of the elected. The Monitoring Officer has been provided with an assurance that the subject member’s Register of Interest is correct and aligned to their current circumstances.’