Agenda item

The Council considered a report of the Director of Legal and Democratic Services which presented a proposed Zero-Tolerance Approach to Abuse Policy (for copy see file of Minutes).

In Moving the report Councillor K Rooney said that the Council already had excellent arrangements in place to deal with abuse and intimidation towards Councillors effectively. The Standards Committee were pleased to note that the Council met four out of the five guiding principles set out in the Local Government Association’s report “Debate not Hate: Ending abuse in public life for Councillors.”  Members would recall that the Council’s arrangements, in particular the Social Media Toolkit, arrangements with the police and risk assessments in the event of incidents were highlighted by the LGA as best practice.  The adoption of the Zero-Tolerance Approach to Abuse Policy would ensure that the Council’s arrangements fully reflected the LGA’s recommended best practice.  The Policy had been drafted so that it was consistent with the Council’s existing policies and procedures such as the Member and Employee Codes of Conduct, the Corporate Complaints Policy and arrangements for dealing with habitual and vexatious complainants. The Policy set clear expectations of the standards of behaviour that were expected from interactions between members, officers and members of the public.  It was unfortunate that the abuse and intimidation faced by Members and Officers continued to rise but the Standards Committee remained committed in ensuring the Council’s arrangements for dealing with such incidents remained up to date and reflective of best practice. Councillor Rooney thanked the Monitoring Officer, her team and all of the Officers involved in preparing the policy as well as providing support to Councillors who experienced abuse and intimidation.

Councillor R Bell said that the Council already had arrangements in place for dealing with allegations of misconduct against Officers and Members, vexatious and habitual complainants and potentially violent persons. However, there was currently no document which set out the Council’s zero-tolerance approach to abuse. This policy sought to address that gap and having signed up to the Debate not Hate statement in January 2023, it was important that the Council maintained its commitment to promote respectful debate and interactions between Members, Officers and the public and duly Seconded the report.

Resolved:

That the recommendations in the report be approved.