Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Leslie Hills and Frank Wardle. Councilors Derek Ashenden and Leslie Pearton attended as their substitutes.

The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 12 June 2023 were agreed and signed by the Chair.

Councillor Jordan Meade declared an interest in that, in his paid capacity as an Advisor in the House of Lords, he was the Senior Advisor who undertook the Local Government Disqualification Act 2022 through the Upper House.

The Monitoring Officer informed the Committee that the Localism Act 2011 established the current standards and conduct framework for local authorities.

The current regime required every local authority to adopt a code of conduct, the contents of which must as a minimum be consistent with the 7 ‘Nolan’ principles of standards in public life and set out rules on requiring Members to register and disclose pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests.

Beyond these requirements, it was for individual Councils to set their own local code however every authority must also have in place arrangements under which it can investigate allegations of breaches of its code of conduct and must consult at least one independent person before coming to decisions. The decision can be made by Full Council following advice from their Standards Committee (or equivalent). Alternatively, the decision can be made by the Standards Committee if they have been given the power to do so.

There was currently no provision in legislation for a sanction to suspend a Councillor found to have breached the code of conduct. Sanctions for Member code of conduct breaches were currently limited to less robust measures than suspension, such as barring Members from Cabinet, Committee, or representative roles, a requirement to issue an apology or undergo code of conduct training, or public criticism. Local authorities were also unable to withhold allowances from Members who commit serious breaches of their code of conduct, and there was no explicit provision in legislation for Councils to impose premises bans or facilities withdrawals where they consider that it might be beneficial to do so.

The Monitoring Officer provided the Committee with an overview of the current regime at Gravesham.

The Government’s view was that the current local authority standards and conduct regime was in certain key aspects ineffectual, inconsistently applied, and lacking in adequate powers to effectively sanction Members found in serious breach of their codes of conduct. Therefore, in December 2024, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, announced that she would be undertaking a review of the standards regime for elected Members.

On 18 December 2024, MHCLG published a consultation document, Strengthening the Standards and Conduct framework for local authorities in England. The consultation being for a 10-week period and taking the form of a set number of questions. The consultation document had been broken down into three parts with subsections asking 40 questions. 

To avoid repetition and provide Members of the Committee with a comprehensive oversight of the consultation, the Monitoring Officer had appended the consultation document, in full, to the report save for deleting background information and administrative details. In addition, next to each question, the Monitoring Officer had inserted a draft suggested response or highlighted it for further consideration by the Committee.

The Committee considered each question in turn and provided feedback for consideration when finalising the formal response. It was proposed that delegated authority be given to the Monitoring Officer in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.