The Standards Committee of Kent Council met on Wednesday 15 October 2025 to discuss the Monitoring Officer's update, and to confirm the minutes of their previous meeting.

Monitoring Officer's Update

The agenda for the meeting of the Standards Committee included an item for the Monitoring Officer to provide an update. The Monitoring Officer for Kent Council is Benjamin Watts, who is also the Deputy Chief Executive. The report pack did not include any further information about the contents of this update.

Minutes from 31 July 2025

The minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 31 July 2025 were included in the Public reports pack.

At that meeting, Councillor Georgia Foster was elected as Chair of the Committee, and Councillor Richard Palmer was elected as Vice-Chair of the Committee.

The committee also received a presentation from Benjamin Watts, General Counsel, about the standards regime.

A Hearing Panel was appointed, consisting of Councillor Georgia Foster, Councillor Richard Palmer and Councillor John Moreland.

The committee approved revisions to the arrangements for handling member complaints and delegated authority to the Monitoring Officer to implement the new arrangements. According to the minutes, the revisions to the council's code of conduct followed the production of a new model code by the Local Government Association¹.

It was explained that a 90 day timeframe to complete an investigation provided flexibility, although it was highlighted that not all complaints would necessarily take this time to complete. It could be that a threshold was introduced, and Members were reminded that resources continued to be a factor for consideration. It was discussed and agreed that the timeframe could return to the Committee for review in the future.