Minutes:
The Chairman advised that on 19 September 2014, accompanied by the Vice Chair and the Council’s Governance Solicitor, he would be attending the Regional Meeting of Chairs and Vice Chairs of Standards Committees. The meeting was held several times during the year and the forthcoming meeting was being hosted by Northumberland County Council at the County Hall in Morpeth. The Chair invited Members to advise of any issues or items of business they would like to see raised at the meeting.
Councillor E Bell suggested that it would be useful for each authority to report on the number of Code of Conduct complaints which had been dealt with during 2013/14 and the current year to date, including an analysis of those complaints, such as how they were all resolved and how many were against Parish, Town or County Councillors.
Councillor E Bell also asked that the regional authorities be canvassed to see whether they experienced repeated complaints from a handful of authorities, as was the case in the Durham County Council area. Should problem Councils have been identified elsewhere in the region, Councillor Bell suggested it would be interesting to know how the relevant principal Authority was handling those Councils.
It was further suggested that information be sought from the regional authorities as to what work was being undertaken to promote ethical frameworks and the Code of Conduct.
The Chairman agreed to take all the suggested queries to the Regional Meeting and report back to the Committee.
Further to a concern from Town Councillor T Batson, the Chairman and Councillor Clark clarified that all members of the Council would be getting the opportunity to attend briefing sessions to raise awareness of sexual exploitation cases. It was clarified that it may be possible to extend the attendance at those sessions to lay members of Council Committees.