The Standards Committee recommended to full council that Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for all councillors should be mandatory from May 2027 onwards, and that the council should write to the government to ask for legislation to make enhanced DBS checks mandatory for all councillors. The committee also noted a government consultation on remote and proxy voting at council meetings. It was decided that the Monitoring Officer should write to the government on behalf of the council, in support of remote attendance for members, but against the introduction of proxy voting.

DBS checks for Councillors

The committee discussed a report, prepared by a working group of three councillors, on whether or not Mid Devon District Councillors should be required to undergo DBS checks.

The working group determined that, as the council does not have social services responsibilities, the law only permits the council to request a basic DBS check for its members. This would reveal unspent convictions or conditional cautions, but would not reveal spent convictions, cautions, reprimands, warnings, or any additional police intelligence. The working group recommended that this check should be mandatory for all councillors from the date of the next local elections in May 2027, that councillors should be able to voluntarily undergo a check from January 2025, and that a protocol should be produced to describe how checks should be carried out.

The committee discussed the report and agreed its recommendations, adding an additional recommendation that the council should write to central government to request that enhanced DBS checks for all councillors be made mandatory in future.

During the discussion, several concerns were raised:

• There is currently no mechanism by which a councillor could be compelled to submit to a check
• It is unclear what sanctions could be applied to a councillor if a check revealed cause for concern
• It is unclear what the value of a basic check would be, given that it would not reveal all past convictions
• The results of a check would not be a matter of public record, and it was unclear whether they could be shared even with all members of the council
• The committee was not provided with any evidence that DBS checks for councillors were a widespread practice amongst other councils, nor that their absence in Mid Devon presented a material risk to any residents of the district
• Some members of the public may already assume that all councillors undergo the same checks as council staff

There was a general consensus amongst members that the most important consideration was to ensure that residents felt safe when interacting with councillors.

Remote and proxy voting at council meetings

The committee discussed a report by the Monitoring Officer, Maria de Leiburne, on a consultation launched by the government on 24 October 2024 about whether or not councillors should be permitted to attend meetings remotely, and whether or not a system of proxy voting should be introduced.

The report noted that the council had already resolved to lobby central government to ask for legislation to allow members to attend meetings remotely. The committee therefore agreed that the council should write to the government to reiterate its support for this position. The committee was pleased to see this position reflected in the consultation.

The committee was however opposed to the introduction of proxy voting. Several concerns were raised about this proposal:

• It is unclear how proxy votes could be governed in situations where votes were called on amendments to proposals that were not known in advance
• It was suggested that proxy voting could be perceived as an attempt to predetermine the outcome of a vote, damaging public confidence in the integrity of the council's decision-making process
• It was suggested that, during the period in which all council meetings had been held online, there had been no suggestion that any members had been unable to attend as a consequence of caring duties or other commitments
• Some members felt that the ability for members with caring duties or other commitments to participate in meetings was already provided for by the ability to attend remotely.

The committee therefore agreed that the council should write to government to object to the introduction of proxy voting.

Complaints against councillors

Maria de Leiburne also provided a verbal report to the committee on complaints received since the previous meeting.

Eight formal complaints had been received against three district councillors, and a further two complaints had been received about three town and parish councillors.

It was noted that this was a significant increase on previous reporting periods. The committee requested more detailed information about the nature of these complaints, and in particular the number that had been upheld, be added to the agenda for the next meeting.

The committee also requested that the council's guidance on making a complaint against a councillor be reviewed, and that a protocol for good practice by councillors should be added to the agenda for a future meeting.