PAPER D
Committee : STANDARDS
COMMITTEE
Date : 27
NOVEMBER 2006
Title : FEEDBACK REPORT FROM FIFTH
ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF STANDARDS COMMITTEES HELD IN BIRMINGHAM ON 16 - 17 OCTOBER
2006
REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN
OF THE STANDARDS COMMITTEE
The Conference was very well attended with the Chief Legal
Advisor and I representing the Isle of Wight Council.
The Assembly commenced with a session specially designed for
people new to the Code of Conduct or the conference. This was followed by a plenary session during which Phil Woolas
MP, Minister for Local Government made a speech entitled “Setting the Standard”
this is available at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1503996. The key points were the forthcoming Local
Government White Paper and the New Code of Conduct.
The New Code of Conduct is expected to be operable by May
2007 to coincide with local government elections. Thus avoiding the need for newly elected councillors to have to
adopt the current code and then a new one.
Patricia Hughes, Deputy Chair, The Standards Board for
England gave a speech entitled “Bridging the gap: towards strategic
regulation”. This, plus many other documents, is available at
http://www.annualassembly.co.uk/Programme/Sessionmaterials/
.
The emphasis was firmly on the changing role of the
Standards Board for England becoming a strategic regulator and the changing
role of standards committees being empowered to deal with complaints at first
instance. The likely changes to the
code of conduct were also discussed in some depth particularly in some of the
workshop sessions.
The second plenary session was “Standards committees: a
national snapshot”. BMG Research
findings from earlier this year.
The third plenary session was “When politics becomes personal:
is local level governance the panacea”?
The final plenary session was “Time to reflect” and “Moving
forward”
The workshops were:
Implication of the revised Code of
Conduct and the future ethical environment.
How do you measure up?
Bridging the gap: knowledge, techniques and skills.
Case review - lessons
learnt so far.
A robust filter.
Conducting an effective
investigation.
Holding an effective
hearing.
Investigations - work
through.
Hearings - work through.
The revised Code -
declaring interests.
Investigations -
in-house or out-house?
General open house Q
& A.
Bridging the gap: awareness, development, wider debate.
Corporate governance -
integrating the ethical agenda.
Freedom of expression -
drawing the line.
An inclusive approach to
towns and parishes.
Towns and parishes -
when things go wrong.
Training the trainer.
Working proactively -
the role of standards committees.
Standards committees -
raising your profile.
Issues of independence.
Monitoring officer open
house Q & A.
On Monday evening there were the following fringe events.
Achieving excellence in
local filtering: monitoring officers’ perspective: ACSeS.
Independent Members
gaining a voice: AIMSce.
The ethical governance
toolkit - how does your authority measure up? IdeA.
The future of local
community governance and standards. NALC
Leadership and
governance and the Lyons Inquiry proposals. SOLACE.
R. B. CLAXTON
Chairman of the Standards Committee