Agenda item

Hearing Sub Procedures

The Chairman highlighted that the Hearings Sub Committee had taken a decision earlier this morning to proceed to a full Hearing with regard to a complaint submitted to them. He went on to report that, as this would be the first of such hearings that the Sub Committee would oversee, there were some questions around whether this should be held in public or private session (different authorities currently took very different approaches to this) and further questions around what approach should be taken with regard to the publication of any decisions reached by the hearing. The Chairman welcomed the views of the Committee on this matter.

The Committee were informed that the advice from the Assistant City Solicitor had been that the Sub Committee would have sufficient legal justification to hold the forthcoming hearing in private session.

One Co-opted Member commented that she was of the view that any decision reached should be published unless there was good reason not to. She added that her instinct was that the hearing should also be held in public for the same reason. However, another Co-opted Member disagreed and stated that the hearing should be held in private with a view then taken as to whether or not any decisions made should be made public on a case by case basis, taking into consideration the severity of each case.

An Independent Person concurred that the hearing should be held in private as was the case with many trade/professional bodies but that a strong case could then be made for making any decisions reached public.

A Member stated that he felt that hearings in general should be held in public unless this would be of concern to the complainant.

In response to a question, the Chairman confirmed that, if a hearing were to be held in public, the press would be entitled to attend and also to make audio/visual recordings of the proceedings.

The Comptroller and City Solicitor confirmed that the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 now applied to such meetings and therefore there was a presumption that hearings would be held in public unless they dealt with exempt information. He added that it would be for the relevant Sub Committee to take a view regarding any exempt information on a case by case basis. Where a complaint under the Code of Conduct was connected to disciplinary proceedings against an employee for example, it was likely that any hearing would be held in non-public session. Other complaints may be more public in nature. The Committee were informed that, where cases were held in private session, public minutes providing a sufficient summary would still have to be produced.

The Chairman thanked Members for their views and stated that all future hearings would be held in public unless there were clear, sufficient legal grounds for them to be private. With regard to decisions taken by the Sub Committee, it was agreed that these should be made public with the reasons behind such decisions also published unless these contained exempt information as covered by the Local Government Act 1972.

Dispensations Sub Committee

A copy of a letter sent to all Members of the Court of Common Council on behalf of the Chairman of the Standards Committee and the Comptroller and City Solicitor was tabled. The letter concerned a forthcoming debate and vote that was due to take place at the Finance Committee and potentially the Court of Common Council regarding the Business Rate Premium and any disclosable pecuniary interests Members might have around this. The letter had also advised Members that a Dispensations Sub Committee had been scheduled for Wednesday, 10 February 2016 to consider any written requests for a dispensation that Members might want to submit to enable them to talk and vote on this matter.

The Chairman sought the availability of two Common Councilmen and one Co-opted Member to sit on the forthcoming Dispensations Sub Committee.

RESOLVED – That, the following Members be appointed to the Dispensations Sub Committee scheduled for 10.00am on Wednesday 10 February 2016:

·        Nigel Challis

·        Dan Large (Co-opted Member)

·        Edward Lord

·        Virginia Rounding