Agenda item

Considered –

The report of the Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer to update the Committee regarding ethical framework complaint activity.

A standing report regarding complaints that Members and voting co-opted

Members of North Yorkshire Council and parish and town councils in North

Yorkshire may have breached the relevant Code of Conduct for Members is

brought to scheduled ordinary meetings of the Standards and Governance

Committee.

North Yorkshire Council is the principal authority for parish and town councils in

North Yorkshire for the purposes of the standards provisions in the Localism Act

2011. It is responsible for receiving and handling complaints that a parish/town

councillor may have breached that authority’s code of conduct for Members. That

is the extent of North Yorkshire Council’s jurisdiction in respect of parish/town

council governance; parish/town councils are separate legal entities and North

Yorkshire Council has no jurisdiction to consider other complaints for example about

the way in which the parish/town council has or has not done something, or about

particular parish/town council decisions or employees.

Jennifer Norton, Assistant Director Legal and Deputy Monitoring Officer gave a short presentation on behalf of the Monitoring Officer to talk through the complaint statistics in more detail highlighting the following points:

·       Since 1 April 2023, NYC is the principal authority for parish and town councils in North Yorkshire for the purposes of the standards complaints regime in the Localism Act 2011.

·       That is the extent of NYC’s jurisdiction in respect of parish/town council governance; parish/town councils are separate legal entities and North Yorkshire Council has no jurisdiction to consider other complaints eg about the way in which the parish council has or has not done something, or about particular parish council decisions.

·       All parish and town councils were contacted via E mail on 6 April 2023 advising of arrangements and encouraging local councils to adopt NYC’s Code of Conduct which is based on the Local Government Association’s Model Code.

·       The adoption of NYC’s code is recommended as there is value in having a consistent approach to a code of conduct across all councils in North Yorkshire, not least because it will facilitate the public’s and elected members’ understanding of the requirements of the code and how complaints can be framed and addressed.

·       NYC have in place, a) Arrangements under which written complaints of breach of code can be investigated b) Arrangements under which decisions on allegations can be made.

·       Such arrangements must include provision for the appointment of at least one Independent Person.

·       A breakdown of the number of complaints and the reasons.

·       Reiteration of the complaints procedure.

This raised the following questions:

A Member asked about the response times to complaints and the need for them to be investigated quickly and timely but thoroughly.

It was noted that filtering and assessing the volume of complaints received is time consuming but agreed that the process needs to be responsive and decisions reached as soon as possible.

It was asked if there was a triage system to prioritise concluding more serious complaints in which there is significant public interest.

It was agreed that each case is individual and whilst there is an element of prioritisation for more serious cases, other factors are also relevant to timescales including whether the police become involved (in which case NYC’s process may be held in abeyance) and how quicky parties respond.

A Member asked if there was any learning to be gained from the items that were deemed to have no further action taken, as this number was large, in order to prevent further claims that were not relevant.

It was confirmed that the individual assessment reports would include any recommended lessons in the feedback.

Members noted that 1 case under investigation was from North Yorkshire Council and 17 were from the previous District and Borough Councils. Understanding the volume and timeframe currently, Members asked if the Committee could be updated on a regular basis and were there any lessons to learn or training needs to be identified going forward.

It was noted that 8 authorities coming together had resulted in a higher number of  complaints received by one authority. A lot of the complaints related to parish matters and these would previously have been dealt with at the District/Borough level.

A Member asked if the reduction in Councillors from 319 to 90 in any way correlated to the increase in complaints.

It was explained that it did not and that the majority of complaints related to town and parish councils.  Furthermore the complaints were not fromacross the whole of the County, some were very specific to certain areas. Some issues were down to a breakdown in relationships.

The Chair reiterated that all Parish and Town councils were offered training through North Yorkshire Local Association of Council’s.

Members suggested that having a regular update on the number of complaints could prove useful in identifying early trends and providing early intervention.

Resolved-

That the Committee notes the current position on standards complaints received.