Meeting: County Council (County Hall, Durham - Council Chamber - 26/06/2008 10:00:00 AM)
Item: A7 Appointment of Additional Independent Members to the Standards Committee
Purpose of the Report
1 To confirm arrangements for extending the Independent Membership of the Standards Committee until 31 March 2009.
Background
2 Members may recall I reported to Council recently that under the terms of the Interim Constitution the role and function of the Standards Committee would be amended to include the full range of responsibilities for assessment, investigation and determination of allegations of misconduct on the part of Members (initial assessment was previously the responsibility of the Standards Board for England).
3 In order to fulfil this new responsibility Council agreed to extend the membership of the Standards Committee by four additional Independent Members and six additional Elected Members. Consequently the Standards Committee should now comprise 6 Independent Members and 12 Elected Members. The Elected Membership of the Committee has been finalised accordingly.
Independent Membership
4 The Standards Committee currently has 2 Independent Members ‘in post’ - Eddie Marchant, Independent Chairman and Dorothy Winter, whose current terms of office are due to expire in August 2009 and August 2008 respectively. Mr Marchant has served on the Committee since its inception in 2001 and Mrs Winter is in her second term of office having served continuously since 2002.
5 It is proposed that the 2 Independent Members from each of the Standards Committees of the Police and Fire and Rescue Authorities be appointed as Independent Members of the Council’s Standards Committee until 1 April 2009.
6 The Independent Members in question have been the subject of a full recruitment and selection process undertaken by their respective Authorities.
They are: