PAPER C

 

Purpose: For Decision

 

Committee:

STANDARDS COMMITTEE

 

 

Date:

11 JUNE 2002

 

 

Title:

DISPENSATIONS UNDER SECTION 81(4) OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 2000

 

 

 

REPORT OF THE MONITORING OFFICER

 

 

 


SUMMARY/PURPOSE

 

To consider the Committee’s power to grant dispensations to allow members to participate in an item of business that they would normally be precluded from participating in as they have a personal and prejudicial interest.

 

BACKGROUND

 

Section 81(4) of the Local Government Act 2000 allows (subject to regulations) the Standards Committee to grant dispensations to allow members to participate in matters that they would normally be excluded from by virtue of the Codes of Conduct.  The regulations for this have now been issued  (The Relevant Authorities (Standards Committee) (Dispensations) Regulations 2002) and these state that a dispensation can be granted for the following reasons:

 

  1. If more than half the members of the Council are caught by the interest; or

 

  1. If the Council would not be able to comply with the political proportionality requirements (ie most of one political group being caught by the interest).

 

The Regulations require that all requests for dispensations must be in writing from the member concerned.

 

The Regulations also state that there has to be a written record of the duration and nature of the dispensation and that dispensations CANNOT be granted for the following:

 

  1. For more than four years;

 

  1. To allow a member of a Select Committee to participate in the scrutiny of the decision of another committee in which they were involved; and

 

  1. To an individual to allow them to exercise executive functions where they are prohibited by the code of conduct from doing so.

 

At the moment it is understood that all such requests for dispensations have to be considered by the Standards Committee and that this function cannot be delegated to either a Sub Committee, an individual member or an officer.  It is therefore possible that on receipt of any such requests an urgent meeting of the Standards Committee will need to be called to consider the matter.  However the current quorum of the Standards Committee is: 3 Independent Members, 2 Isle of Wight Councillors and (when considering Parish matters) the representative from the Association of Parish and Town Councils.  Therefore at least 6 people would need to be present at short notice to consider a request from a Parish Councillor.  To ease the process the Committee might like to consider recommending to Council that the quorum when considering requests for dispensations should be reduced to any three members of the Committee (of whom at least one must be an Independent Member) and when considering Parish matters the representative from the Association of Parish and Town Councils.

 

It is suggested that all Councillors on the Isle of Wight (Isle of Wight Council and Parish and Town Councils) be informed of this facility and be advised that if they wish to apply for a dispensation they need to do so in plenty of time before a matter is due to be considered by their Council.

 

It is difficult at this stage to predict the level of requests for dispensations.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

 

1.             That the power to grant dispensations (and the restrictions thereon) be noted and that all Councillors on the isle of Wight be informed of the process.

 

2.             That Council be recommended to amend the Membership and Terms of Reference of the Standards Committee so that the quorum when considering requests for4 dispensations be any three members of the Committee (of whom at least one must be an Independent Member) and when considering Parish matters the representative from the Association of Parish and Town Councils.

 

 

 

Contact Point: Chris Mathews, F 823280

 

 

 

 

MIKE FISHER

Monitoring Officer