Agenda item

A joint report of the Town Clerk and the Comptroller & City Solicitor relative to the local arrangements for the determination of complaints. 

The Committee is asked to approve the local arrangements and the establishment of various sub committees to deal with the different stages of handling a complaint.   

The Localism Act 2011 required the City Corporation to have arrangements under which written allegations of a breach of the Member Code of Conduct could be investigated and decisions on those allegations could be taken. Members were asked to discuss the draft handbook which presented guidelines for dealing with complaints submitted to the Committee and a revised version of page 3 of the handbook was laid round the table.

The Comptroller and City Solicitor referred to the revised page 3 of the handbook and confirmed that the informal resolution of some complaints by the Chief Commoner or the Chairman of the Privileges Committee of Aldermen did not prejudice the requirement for all formal written complaints to be dealt with by the Standards Committee.

A Member queried the identity and role of the Monitoring Officer. The Comptroller and City Solicitor confirmed that he was the Monitoring Officer, and outlined his statutory duties. In answer to a further Member’s question, it was noted that over a 10-year period the Standards Committee had only considered one complaint, which had been deemed vexatious and had been dismissed by the Committee. Members noted that the arrangements must be flexible to allow Officers to make minor amendments to the handbook[EW1]  to capture and deal with matters arising in the future.

RESOLVED - That approval be given to the Complaints Procedure Handbook subject to the revision of page 3, as laid round the table.