The Standards Assessment Board of County Durham Council met on Tuesday 17 February 2026 to consider updates on code of conduct complaints. The meeting's agenda included a review of ongoing complaints and the status of those that had been assessed.

Code of Conduct Complaints Update

The Board was scheduled to receive an update on complaints lodged under the Members' Code of Conduct. This report, prepared by Helen Bradley, Director of Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer, aimed to inform the Board about the progress of complaints received by Durham County Council since the previous meeting on 8 January 2026.

The report detailed the Council's duty, as outlined in section 27 of the Localism Act 2011¹, to uphold high standards of conduct among its members and co-opted members. This includes adopting a Code of Conduct consistent with the Nolan Principles², which guide public life. The Council is also responsible for managing complaints against its own members and those of town and parish councils within its jurisdiction. The report noted that the procedure for handling these complaints was updated and agreed by the Standards Committee on 15 October 2025, becoming effective from 1 November 2025. Under this procedure, the Standards Assessment Board, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, is expected to consider complaints and decide on any necessary action within 20 working days of receipt.

The report provided a breakdown of complaints received before 19 December 2025 and those received between 19 December 2025 and 6 February 2026. It indicated that some complaints were scheduled for consideration at the 17 February meeting, while others had been rejected for not engaging the Code of Conduct, withdrawn by the complainant, or were still at the pre-assessment stage. The report recommended that the Board note its contents.

The meeting was also scheduled to consider several specific complaint references in Part B of the agenda, which were deemed to involve exempt or confidential information. These included:

• Complaint Reference FS-Case-782717564
• Complaint Reference FS-Case-774127608
• Complaint Reference FS-Case-782686249
• Complaint Reference FS-Case-772392587
• Complaint Reference FS-Case-784622103

These specific cases were detailed in separate reports, with pages allocated for each within the public reports pack.