Agenda item

Report of the Managing Director

The Managing Director submitted a report (previously circulated) updating Members on issues relevant to Member standards and ethical governance.

The submitted report updated Members on the review of the Member Code of Conduct by the Local Government Association (LGA) as recommended by the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s (CSPL) report into Local Government Ethical Standards. It was reported that if a new standardised Model Code of Conduct is rolled out which all local authorities are required to adopt legislation will be required, however the approach being taken appeared to be an advisory rather than mandatory approach. 

The submitted report also set out a number of datasets of ethical indicators to assist in monitoring the ethical health of the Council and it was reported that, by reviewing these indicators, it was anticipated that any unusual or significant trends or changes in the volume of data recorded for the period concerned would alert the Authority to any deterioration in its ethical health and enable any necessary action to be taken at an early stage.

Members agreed to give further consideration to the draft in its final form to see what changes could be made to our current Code of Conduct.

Member also considered a number of best practice recommendations of the CSPL and in particular the recommendation to have at least two Independent Persons and agreed to appoint a second Independent Person.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.