Standards Committee

All Councils must demonstrate high standards of conduct through the actions of all Members and Officers and as part of ensuring these standards are met it is required to have a Standards Committee. In broad terms the Committee seeks to ensure that the Borough Council and Parish Councils maintain the highest ethical standards in all their activities.

Membership of Standards Committee:

The Committee has an independent Chair who is Mr. Mike Airey.

There are also two further independent members of the Committee, Mr. Mike Hill and Mr. Francis Hayes. There are five Borough Councillors on the Committee, Councillors Brian Jones, Councillor Lawton, Councillor Lewis, Councillor Maddison and Councillor Newall, and three Parish Councillors Maggie Beadle, Derek Dodwell and Michael French who represent the interests of Parish Councils in the Borough. The Committee is supported by the Council's Monitoring Officer

The Committee is responsible for:

Promoting high standards of conduct by Councillors and Officers.
Helping Councillors observe the Members' Code of Conduct [pdf document]
Advising and monitoring the Council on the Members' Code of Conduct.
Receiving complaints against Members and undertaking an initial assessment of those complaints. Procedure for Handling Complaints Against Members [pdf document]
Authorising investigations to be undertaken in respect of complaints made against Members.
Authorising steps other than investigation, for example, when a complaint against a Member is considered suitable for mediation or Member retraining.
Holding hearings to decide if Members have broken the Code of Conduct.
Determining the appropriate sanction.
Dealing with reports and referrals from the Standards Board for England.
Advising Parish Councils and Councillors on their Code of Conduct.
Overseeing the Borough Council's corporate complaints procedure.
Monitoring the Borough Council's Code of Conduct for Employees and Confidential Reporting Policy ('Whistleblowing Policy' ) [pdf document]

Other Information

Complaints form [pdf document]
Members' Code of Conduct [pdf document]
General Principles of conduct
Register of Members Interests
Standards Committee Information
The Monitoring Officer
How your complaint will be dealt with
Parish Councils and Parish Meetings
The Standards Board for England [external link]
Predisposition, Predetermination or Bias and the Code [external link]
Standards for England Resource Library - Governance Toolkit for Parish and Town Councils [external link]

Annual Report of the Standards Committee 2009 [pdf document]

Annual Report of the Standards Committee 2010 [pdf document]

Article in the Local Press regarding attendance on Training Courses by Members of this Authority [external link]

Meetings of the Standards Committee

Meetings of the Standards Committee usually take place quarterly and are generally open to the public to attend, except where an item is of a confidential nature. The Standards Committee does not have an agreed calendar of meetings, instead the date of the next meeting is agreed each time the Committee meets.

Date	Time	Location	Papers
Wednesday, 7th September, 2011	9.30 a.m.	Committee Room No. 1	View the agenda for this meeting (07/09/11)
Wednesday, 25th January 2012	9.30 a.m.	Committee Room No. 1	View the agenda for this meeting (25/01/12)
Wednesday, 18th April 2012	9.30 a.m.	Committee Room No. 3	View the agenda for this meeting (18/04/12)

Agendas of the Standards Committee for previous Muncipal Years.