Apologies for absence were received from Councillors I Brown and L. Scudder.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8th May 2008 were submitted and signed.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Legal and Property Services setting out a Government Consultation on proposed further revisions to the existing code of conduct for Councillors and the introduction of a code of conduct for local authority employees. The Head of Legal and Property Services explained the background to the report. She stated that the report would also be considered by the Council's Standards Committee as it related to the Code of Conduct for Councillors as well as employees.

A Member asked the Head of Legal and Property Services to explain the reason for the proposed answer to question four of the consultation paper as he felt that only convictions abroad and were also offences in the United Kingdom should be considered to be a breach of the code.

The Head of Legal and Property Services had said that in her view it would lead to difficulties for the local Standards Committee in establishing whether the offence committed abroad would have any similarities to that of an offence committed in this country.

The Member commented on question five of the paper and asked whether it should be agreed that an ethical investigation should not proceed until the criminal process was completed. He asked the Head of Legal and Property Services to explain what the proposal in the consultation paper was.
The Head of Legal and Property Services stated that under the proposals for members not acting in their official capacity, there would only be a breach of the code if they had been convicted of an offence. Therefore it was unlikely that a local standards committee would commence any process on a complaint where there was no conviction as there would be no breach of the code. For a member acting in their official capacity it might be likely that any evidence of potential criminal activity might only come about as a result of an investigation. Also if it was clear that criminal activity was suspected a standards committee might well want to have the ability to suspend a member pending a final outcome.

The Chair commented on paragraph 3.2 of the report. She asked the Head of Legal and Property Services if Appendix 1 was a separate investigation to the matters already being investigated. The Head of Legal and Property Services referred to the wording in the report in paragraphs 3.19 to 3.21 and read it out to the Committee. She agreed with the Chair that the wording was some what confusing.

One Member referred to paragraph 3.9 of the report. He stated that this part of the report had given the impression that if a Councillor was to breach the member's code, it could be investigated by the Council. The Head of Legal and Property Services explained that no investigation by either the local standards committee or the Standards Board for England would take place until all criminal processes had been exhausted including any appeals whilst a criminal investigation was taking place.

The Chair referred to the suggested answers to the consultation in respect of the staffing code and informed the Committee that she agreed with them.

Another Member pointed out to the Committee that by implementing a code, it would need to be fair to all staff otherwise it would be seen to be unfair to employees.

A Member stated that he felt if their was to be a two tier code then the higher obligations should be for officers exercising delegated authority rather than on the basis of politically restricted posts as these often applied to relatively junior officers because of the low pay threshold.

The Chair asked the Head of Legal and Property Services whether staff currently had to declare any interests.

The Head of Legal and Property Services said that there were certain circumstances when officers did register interests. For example, if there was a potential conflict of interest such as they had a major share holding in a company that had been linked to the Council. Also officers were obliged to declare receipt of gifts and hospitality.