Agenda item - CODE OF CONDUCT AND REGISTRATION OF INTERESTS REVIEW

REPORT OF THE DEPUTY MONITORING OFFICER

To consider and review the proposed amendments to NHDC’s Councillors’ Code of Conduct and Register of Interests process and form.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL:

(1) That the amendments to the NHDC Code of Conduct (shown as tracked changes to Appendix B of the report) be approved with effect from 4 May 2018, and include the following further amendment to Paragraph 2.2(e):

Addition of the words “in respect of a criminal offence”, so that it reads “in respect of any criminal offence of which you have been convicted or for which you have accepted an out of court disposal in respect of a criminal offence during your term of office”;

(2) That the Monitoring Officer be authorised to make any consequential amendments to the Constitution to incorporate the new Councillor Speaking Right; and

(3) That the amended Councillor’s Register of Interest form (attached at Appendix C to the report) be adopted and be completed by Councillors from 4 May 2018, and include the following further amendment to Section 9:

Addition of the words “non-voting”, so that the Section reads:

“Outside bodies

Any body of which you are a member of in apposition of general control or management which:

(i) you are appointed or nominated to by the authority; or

(ii) exercises functions of a public nature; or

(iii) is directed to charitable purposes; or

(iv) includes as one of its principal purposes the influence of public opinion or policy (including any political party or trade union).

Detail: Date of appointment and position (ie. Director, Trustee, member/representative/ non-voting observer.”

RESOLVED: That, subject to the approval of Recommendation to Council (1) above,

(1) The Monitoring Officer be authorised to update the NHDC Code of Conduct Guide to reflect any adopted changes to the Code; and

(2) That the requirement to advertise the adoption of any amended Councillor Code of Conduct be noted.

REASON FOR DECISION: To ensure good governance within the Council.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer presented a report requesting the Committee to review the proposed amendments to NHDC’s Councillors’ Code of Conduct and Register of Interests process and form. The following appendices were submitted with the report:

Appendix A - Clean version of the Code of Conduct with tracked changes accepted;

Appendix B - Code with tracked changes;

Appendix C - Clean version of the Councillors Register of Interests Form with tracked changes accepted; and

Appendix D - Former notification/declarations form with tracked changes.

In respect of the Code of Conduct, the Deputy Monitoring Officer reminded the Committee that there was no mandatory Code. The relevant legislation had not changed and hence the Code had not been reviewed since 2013. The proposed revisions to the Code were set out in the table under Paragraph 8.1 of the report, with Appendix A being a clean copy version of the Code, with Appendix B containing track changes in red and sections moved from one area to another in green. The proposed revisions had been discussed with the Independent Person and Reserve Independent Person.

In relation to the proposed new Register of Interests Form, the Deputy Monitoring Officer commented that should this be approved then the implementation date would be following the next District Council Elections in May 2018. Of the amendments detailed as Paragraph 8.1, the significant proposed changes to the Code were to paragraphs:

· 3.7(e): a new obligation to attend compulsory training. This was defined as being those designated as such by a Statutory Officer with the agreement of the Group Leaders or through a decision of Council, Cabinet or Committee; or if in relation to a standards complaint, as set out in the report;

· 4.7: a requirement to register two types of Declarable Interests on the proposed Register of Interest form, namely gifts and hospitality and membership/management etc on an outside body. It was reiterated that these were existing Declarable Interests, the former had to be registered already on a form, the latter were known and it would simplify the administrative process and aid transparency; and

· 6 and 7: that had been merged, and a new Councillor Speaking Right was proposed to deal with situations where a Councillor had a Declarable Interest and wanted to speak to an item before leaving the meeting.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer, assisted by the Monitoring Officer, answered a number of Members’ questions on the various documents.

The Committee made some minor amendments to both the Code of Conduct and Register of Interests Form.