Agenda item

The Head of Legal Services discussed the standards and code of conduct, what it means and outlined the obligations of Parish Councils and also the Principle Authority.

The following key points were highlighted:

Duty under the localism act for every Parish Council to adopt a code of conduct.

Have to have a register of interests and these must be published on both the Parish Council website, where available, and the Principle Authorities website.

Parishes can choose to adopt PCC code (attached to report) which is quite a paired down version compared to the DCLG and NALC versions.

Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI’s) form part of the code of conduct and it is a criminal offence to speak or vote at a meeting if you have a DPI and they have not been declared.

Cannot participate in a meeting if you have a DPI unless you have a dispensation in place.

Parish Clerk is responsible for giving dispensations.

PCC are currently looking at introducing a system of blanket dispensations e.g. if a blanket dispensation was put in place in relation to a members employer then that member would always be allowed to speak about matters concerning said employer at a meeting should they arise.

If a complaint is made about a Parish Councillor then it should be made to the Monitoring Officer who will notify the relevant member whom the complaint was made against asking for their side of the story.

If a complaint is referred for investigation it will go through a formal process to see if the code has been breached and may then be referred to the Audit Committee at PCC.

PCC will be recruiting an Independent Person to advise Parish Councillors on complaints should a complaint arise.

Members asked to review the code and come back in nine months to look at any potential changes.

Currently no members of Parish Councils are on the Audit Committee but recommendations can be put to Council if someone would like to be.

The following questions were raised:

Q. Are there any benefits as to which code is adopted?

A. Parish Councils should adopt a code that best suits them although it would be easier if everybody was working off the same code. CAPALC also advised that it would be much clearer if Parish Councils adopted their Principle Authorities code.

Q. If Parish Councils decide to adopt the PCC code would they be able to submit draft recommendations for amendments?

A. The Head of Legal Services advised that she was more than happy to receive recommendations for amendments and encouraged Parish Councils to be part of the review process if the PCC code is adopted.

Q. How long do Parish Councils have to adopt the Code?

A. A date has not been imposed in legislation although The Head of Legal Services recommended that a code should be adopted sooner rather than later.

Q. What guidelines are there for the Parish Clerk with regards to dispensation?

A. There are no criteria set out in the act. DPI’s should be submitted to the Parish Clerk in writing in advance of meetings. If a vote is to take place at a meeting then the Parish Clerk should look stringently at members DPI’s.

Q. If a member has a DPI are they able to participate in the meeting?

A. Yes, they will only be excluded from the relevant item on the agenda.

Q. If a complaint about a member is received by a Parish Clerk should this be investigated by the Parish Council to begin with?

A. CAPALC advises that, wherever possible, the Parish Council should investigate the complaint in the first instance to see if they can resolve it.

Q. If a complaint is upheld and the Parish Council had to foot the cost of the investigation, would the Parish Council have to include this for that years budget estimates?

A. The code will be allowed to run for six months and then reviewed over three months so a decision will be made then.

Q. Do Parish Councillors have to submit a DPI for their spouse or partner?

A. You are required by law to declare your interests and those of your spouse or partner. When your interests are published they will not distinguish between which are your own and those which are your partners/spouses.

Due to Data Protection issues no members signatures should appear on websites when the interests are published.

Q. Would it be easier for PCC to issue a standard template of the code for all Parishes so that everybody is working from the same document?

A. PCC are happy to issue a standard template.

The Chair asked the members present if this was something that they would like to take forward and the general consensus was that having a standard template issued was a good idea.

Q. Could the Register of Interest forms be made to distinguish between the interests of a member and those of their spouse or partner?

A. It is for the Parish Council to decide how the interests appear although if they were to distinguish between the interests of a member and those of their spouse or partner then written consent from the spouse or partner would be required.

Q. If a Parish Council does not have a website how would they go about publishing their DPI’s?

A. The act requires that the information is still published on the Principle Authorities website.

Action agreed

It was agreed that a draft template of the code of conduct would be issued to all Parish Councils for review.