To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution, which is available to view at the following link:-
https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1
The deadline for the submission of public questions is midday on Wednesday 23 April 2025 [midday 3 clear working days before the meeting].
The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday on Monday 28 April 2025 [midday the working day before the meeting].
The deadline for the submission of a petition is Friday 11 April 2025 [10 working days before the meeting].
Minutes:
Three public questions were received from Mr Alex McKinstry in relation to
Agenda Item 7
Question 1
Will the Chair be providing an update tonight on the eight complaints considered at the consultation meeting of 22 April; and if not, can we be told here and now the outcome of those complaints - along with details of any sanctions, and confirmation of whether the subject councillor in Complaint BCP-177 has provided the "further information" which was requested of them on 3 June 2024?
Response from the Chair
I am not in a position to provide an update in respect of those complaints considered at the consultation meeting last week. An update will be provided at the next meeting of the Standards Committee on 1 July 2025 as part of our standing complaint update item.
Question 2
The report for Item 7 is prefaced as "an update on complaints ... received or concluded since the last report to the Committee in February 2025." Gaps in the numerical sequence, however, indicate that six complaints have been excluded from this report: BCP-200, 201, 202, 204, 206, and 211. (None of these were in February's report either, although BCP-211 appears to date from March.) This is not normal procedure. The practice up to now has been for all the latest complaints to be included in the update for that particular quarter, regardless of whether a complaint has been resolved already, or dismissed at the initial assessment stage, or withdrawn for any reason. So why have these complaints been omitted, with the result that the Committee, and indeed the public, have been given an incomplete round-up?
Response from the Chair
The six complaints referred to were all registered through the online complaints submission process and assigned a reference. However, all were determined to be outside the jurisdiction of the Code of Conduct complaint process and the complainants advised accordingly. Officers register all such submissions and these will be included within the statistics for the annual report accordingly.
Question 3
If a party to a code of conduct complaint is dissatisfied with the complaint outcome - or with the way a complaint has been processed - is there any internal right of review or appeal? None is mentioned in Part 6 of the Constitution.
Response from the Chair
I can confirm that there is no internal right of review or appeal.
Three public questions were received from Mr Alex McKinstry in relation to
Agenda Items 10, 11 and 12:
Question 1
Regarding the seven complaints being considered tonight under Items 10, 11 and 12: did the Committee have to set a budget, or present a business case to Cabinet, before referring these complaints for external investigation? I ask this because the Audit and Governance Committee was told, on 20 March, that it had to do both these things in order to stand a chance of getting FuturePlaces externally investigated. If you could comment on how investigations commissioned by the Standards Committee are funded in general, that too would be most illuminating.
Response from the Chair
The Monitoring Officer has an allocated budget in compliance with Article 11 of the Constitution and the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and the cost of the investigations was taken from that allocated budget.
Question 2
How is it that all seven of tonight's investigations ended up being conducted by the same agent?
Response from the Chair
4 of the BCP cases and both of those relating to Parish/Town Councils have a shared or related theme and/or involve the same interested parties. In the interests of consistency and natural justice for both the complainant(s) and the subject councillor(s) involved and for the avoidance of duplication it was felt necessary to instruct the same independent investigator.
Question 3
Can you confirm how much the investigator (or their LLP) was paid for their work on each of these cases, and whether those sums include / exclude VAT? The complaint references are:
BCP-172;
BCP-184;
BCP-192;
BCP-193;
BCP-195;
.... plus the two complaints against a Christchurch Town councillor - the wording of the agenda report suggests that it's the same town councillor in both these cases - TPC-013 and TPC-014.
Response from the Chair
The cost of each investigation (exclusive of VAT) is as follows:
BCP-172 £3,027.00
BCP-184 Nil
BCP-192 £2,147.50
BCP-193 £1,544.00
BCP-195 £3,719.00
TPC-013 £2,066.50
TPC-014 £5,068.00