Agenda item

A report of the Town Clerk relative to the annual update exercise to Members’ Declarations which took place in December 2014 following the introduction of new requirements under the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Copies of the updated Members’ Declarations are appended in a separately bound volume (Appendix 1).  A list of Members, and confirmation of their annual update status, is attached at Appendix 2.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk which detailed the outcome of the annual update to the Members’ Declarations which took place in December 2014 following the introduction of new requirements under the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of the registration of non-pecuniary interests.

The Town Clerk referred to the separately circulated Appendix 1 which included copies of all of the updated Members’ Declarations forms which had been received following circulation of the annual reminder to all Members and Co-opted Members in December 2014.  It was noted that as at 11^th January 2015, 106 elected Members had responded to the request for updates.  Whilst it was clear that a number of Members had been fastidious about bringing their Registers of Interest up to date ahead of the 1^st January 2015 implementation date, the Chairman expressed some concern that some updates had not taken place and in some instances the on-line Registers contained typographical errors and incomplete details pertaining to non-pecuniary interests. 

In light of the current position, and given the number of reminders that had been issued by the Town Clerk since December, it was felt that the issue of non-compliance with the registration requirements should  be escalated and a formal communication issued by the Comptroller and City Solicitor, in his capacity as the Monitoring Officer, to all Members.  Given that there were a number of different issues that needed to be highlighted, it was agreed that the following correspondence should be circulated by the Comptroller and City Solicitor as soon as possible:

(i) non-respondents to be sent a request clarifying that a Declaration must be resubmitted to the Town Clerk even in the event that there were no updates to either the individual’s statutory or non-pecuniary interests;

(ii) where a response was manifestly incomplete, the Member concerned would be asked to fully update their Members’ Declaration; and

(iii) in each instance Members would be requested to check their on-line Members’ Declaration for transcription errors.

Members would be requested to respond by no later the end of March 2015 and thereafter the Standards Committee would review the position at which point, if necessary, the issue of more formal action would be explored. 

It was further agreed that the importance of the annual update process should be flagged in the next Annual Report of the Standards Committee which would be submitted to the Court of Common Council in June 2015.  Accessibility of the Corporate Governance documentation should also be explored to ensure that up-to-date information was accessible by both Members and the public. 

A Co-opted Member queried why his completed Register of Interests was only retained on file in the Town Clerk’s Department and was not available on-line.  The Comptroller and City Solicitor confirmed that the statutory provisions in relation to on-line registration only applied to those Co-opted Members who were entitled to vote on matters relating to the City Corporation’s local authority or police authority functions; but that this did not preclude the Register of Interests of all Co-opted Members being made available on-line as a matter of policy.  There was some discussion about the need for the non-voting Co-opted Members of the Standards Committee to set an example; it was also observed that a number of City Corporation Committees with responsibility for non-local authority functions had voting Co-opted Members, who equally would not be caught by the statutory provisions.  It was therefore agreed that for the sake of consistency the Register of Interests of all Co-opted Members should be published on-line.  However, concern was expressed that Co-opted Members should be given plenty of notice about such a change.  Members also requested confirmation as to whether this change would need to be confirmed by the Court of Common Council.  It was therefore agreed that officers would bring a proposal back to the next meeting of the Standards Committee to ensure that a consistent approach to the publication of Co-opted Members’ interests was adopted, ideally to be implemented before the summer.

With regards to the administrative arrangements for updating the on-line Registers of Interest, the Committee queried whether there was scope for Members to be able to update their own Registers on line.  The Town Clerk provided a brief overview of the software that was used to publish the data and advised that whilst she did not think that self-service was viable, this would be explored and the Committee updated at the next meeting.  Likewise, in respect of the current format of the on-line form which included a single box in which non-pecuniary interests were logged, the Town Clerk undertook to investigate whether the form could include separate boxes in which each category of non-pecuniary interests could be logged.

Resolved:- That –

(i) the report be noted;

(ii) the 2016 annual update to the Members’ Registers of Interest take place in April 2016, at the start of the new municipal year;

(iii) clarification regarding the arrangements for Co-opted Members (voting and non-voting) be submitted to the next meeting of the Standards Committee; and

(iv) the Comptroller and City Solicitor circulate relevant correspondence to Members in respect of the annual update and, particularly non-compliance, to ensure that all updates and on-line checks were completed before the new municipal year;

(v) an update report on the status of the annual update be submitted to the Standards Committee following circulation of the Comptroller and City Solicitor’s communication;

(vi) the potential for Members to update their own on-line Registers of Interest be explored by the Town Clerk; and

(vii) the on-line Register of Interest form be reviewed with a view to including separate non-pecuniary categories within the form.