Agenda item

To consider the public minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2020.

The public minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2020 were considered.

MATTERS ARISING

Further Review of Dispensations Policy and Leading Counsel’s Opinion (Pages 2-8) – The Chair referred to an email of 29 April sent by an elected Member to all members of the Standards Committee, asking that the draft minutes of the  meeting on 24 January be amended to remove a phrase within an elected Members reported remarks that, in his opinion, retained a defamatory innuendo about him. The Chair reported that she had taken legal advice on this matter and that the City Corporation’s position is that the remarks in question are not defamatory. This matter was also, she highlighted, the subject of a separate complaint. However, she went on to propose that, subject to agreement from the Committee, the amendments as set out within the email of 29 April be accepted and reflected in the final, agreed and published version of the minutes of 24 January 2020.

The Committee concurred that the minutes be amended as suggested.

The Member who had made the remarks in question at the 24 January meeting requested the permission of the Chair to make a brief statement to the meeting to address the matter. They stated that it was now clear, having reviewed the matter, that they had misspoken at that meeting. They added that they accepted entirely that the Member they had referred to does remain on the solicitors’ roll as a non-practising solicitor, and that he had not held himself out as practising. They therefore wished to apologise for that error.

A Co-opted Member spoke to provide additional clarity to her remarks reflected at page 6, paragraph 2 and asked that these be amended to read that she was “in agreement with the current law on dispensations as it related to the applications for dispensations that were being discussed as it offered protection for the public at large”.

The Town Clerk undertook to make the necessary amendments.

Review of Local Government Ethical Standards by the Committee on Standards in Public Life – CSPL Recommendation 3 – page 10 – In response to a question, the Town Clerk clarified that the City Corporation’s guidelines on acceptable Social Media Use had been circulated to all as requested. She undertook to re-circulate this for the avoidance of any doubt.

RESOLVED – That, subject to the amendments agreed and detailed above, the public minutes of the meeting of 24 January 2020 be approved as a correct record.