The Council has delegated to the Standards Committee such of its powers to take action in respect of individual members as may be necessary to promote and maintain high standards of conduct.
Accordingly, the Standards Committee will publish the breach of the code of conduct and the sanction imposed on the subject member’s profile on the Council’s website for a period of time to be determined by the Committee, which is to be no less than the time required for compliance with any sanction.
If a subject member fails to comply with a sanction in the timescale set, the information will remain on the profile until compliance is achieved. The Committee will also report its findings to Council for information.
The Standards Committee may:
- recommend to the member’s group leader (or in the case of ungrouped members, recommend to Council or to committees) that the subject member be removed from any or all committees or sub-committees of the Council
- recommend to the Leader of the Council that the subject member be removed from the Cabinet, or removed from particular portfolio responsibilities
- instruct the monitoring officer to arrange training for the subject member
- recommend to Council to remove the subject member from all outside appointments to which they have been appointed or nominated by the authority
- consider withdrawing facilities provided to the subject member by the Council, such as a computer, website and/or email and internet access, but only if the breach of the code warrants such a sanction – there would be a requirement to ensure constituents were represented and solutions needed to ensure this continued
- exclude the subject member from the Council’s offices or other premises, with the exception of meeting rooms as necessary for attending Council, committee and sub-committee meetings
- recommend to the Council that the subject member be issued with a formal censure (such as the issue of an unfavourable opinion or judgement or reprimand) by motion
- instruct the monitoring officer to apply the informal resolution process
- recommend the Council to issue a press release or other form of publicity
- recommend that the subject member makes an apology at the next full Council meeting
- take such steps as appropriate, reasonable and proportionate to the particular conduct that amounted to the breach of the code of conduct
The Standards Committee has no power to suspend or disqualify the subject member or to withdraw members’ or special responsibility allowances.
What happens at the end of the hearing
At the end of the hearing, the chair will state the decision of the Committee as to whether the subject member failed to comply with the member code of conduct and as to any actions which the Committee resolves to take.
As soon as reasonably practicable thereafter, and normally within five working days, the monitoring officer shall prepare a formal decision notice in consultation with the chair of the Committee. They will also send a copy to the complainant and to the subject member and will make that decision notice available for public inspection and report the decision to the next convenient meeting of the Council.
If the subject member complies with the sanction imposed by the Standards Committee, within the timescale set, the monitoring officer will report the matter to the Standards Committee for information.
If the subject member fails to comply with the sanction within the timescale set, the matter will be referred to the Standards Committee and Full Council for information.