The Standards Hearing Sub-Committee was scheduled to meet on Tuesday 21 April 2026 to discuss a complaint against a councillor and the procedure for such hearings. The meeting was also to include a private session to consider exempt information.

Hearing Procedure

The Sub-Committee was scheduled to consider the procedure for hearings concerning complaints against councillors. This procedure was to be submitted by the Deputy Monitoring Officer, and the Sub-Committee was asked to note it.

Hearing of Deputy Monitoring Officer's Report into a Complaint Against Councillors

A significant item on the agenda was the hearing of the Deputy Monitoring Officer's report into a complaint against a councillor, identified as Complaint Number 11/2025. This report was to enable the Standards Hearing Sub-Committee to consider the complaint, which followed a decision made by the Standards Advisory Board on 9 February 2026.

The report pack indicated that the Sub-Committee would be recommended to consider this report in private. This was on the grounds that it contained exempt information as defined by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985. The proposed resolution stated:

that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following report in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because it involves the likely disclosure of 'exempt' information, as defined in the Paragraphs detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and, taking all the circumstances into account, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information

The exempt information was specified as relating to:

• Paragraph 1: Information relating to any individual.
• Paragraph 2: Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.
• Paragraph 7c: The deliberations of a standards committee or of a sub-committee of a standards committee established under the provisions of Part 3 of the Local Government Act 2000 in reaching any finding on a matter referred under the provisions of section 60(2) or (3), 64(2), 70(4) or (5).

The report pack did not provide details on the specific nature of the complaint or the councillor involved.

The meeting was scheduled to be attended by Councillor Diane Cank, Mr Simon Smith (Independent Member), and Mr Edward Thompson (Independent Member). Jessica Skidmore, Governance Services Officer, was also listed as an officer contact.