The Standards Committee met and, amongst other business, discussed the Localism Act 2011 and its application to councillor conduct, agreeing to update the council's procedures. Councillors also received an update on recent complaints made against councillors.

Complaints against councillors

The committee received a report detailing recent complaints made against councillors. The report is confidential so was not made public.

Update to procedures

The Committee discussed proposals to update the council's procedures in relation to complaints made against councillors under the Localism Act 2011.

The Localism Act 2011 is an Act of Parliament which, amongst many other things, sets out the rules about councillor conduct.

The Committee will recall that the Localism Act 2011 changed the way in which complaints about the conduct of councillors are dealt with.

The proposed changes mainly relate to which council officers are involved in the different stages of dealing with a complaint. For example, it was proposed that the Monitoring Officer, rather than the Head of Paid Service, should decide whether there is a need to investigate a complaint.

This report proposes that the Monitoring Officer, as opposed to the Head of Paid Service, should make the decision about whether there is a need to investigate, as this function more naturally sits with the Monitoring Officer role.

Councillors agreed to the proposed changes.