Agenda item

A joint report of the Town Clerk and the Comptroller & City Solicitor detailing the current arrangements in respect of the granting of dispensations by the City of London Corporation to Members who wish to speak and/or vote on matters where they have a relevant interest in land within the City.

Appendix 1 sets out the details of all the dispensations that have been approved since 8^th February 2013. 

The Committee considered a joint report of the Town Clerk and the Comptroller and City solicitor regarding the current arrangements in respect of the granting of dispensations by the City of London Corporation to Members who wish to speak and/or vote on matters where they have a relevant interest.

A brief note setting out some of the key matters that would be taken into account by the Standards Committee and the Dispensations Sub (Standards) Committee in determining requests for dispensations was tabled by the Comptroller and City Solicitor.

With regards to Appendix 1 of the report before the Committee, and which detailed those dispensations that had been granted since the introduction of the Localism Act, some Members noted that there were no details regarding the circumstances of the majority of dispensations that had been granted.  The Comptroller and City Solicitor confirmed that these block dispensations had been granted to Members where they were likely to consider housing and Council Tax matters (and had a relevant interest in land within the City) in order to emulate the exemptions under the previous standards regime.  It was noted that more recent individualised applications had led to the current approach to considering requests, whereby a Member had to submit a detailed written request setting out the reasons for the request and how long the dispensation was required for.  Members endorsed this approach in all cases and emphasised how important it was for as much detail as possible about previous dispensation requests to be included in relevant reports so that the Standards Committee and/or the Dispensations Sub Committee could continuously review the granting of dispensations and ensure that there was a consistent approach.

Whilst some Members had previously indicated that it might be beneficial to have some form of written guidance around the granting of dispensations, the Committee agreed that a prescriptive approach was not appropriate and that the circumstances of each request should instead be considered.  It was however agreed that reference back to historic considerations was helpful and that the list of requests (granted or rejected) should be further developed to include appropriate detail that would enable the Sub Committee (or the Committee) to ensure that dispensations were considered in a consistent manner.  Likewise, where other protocols might be a consideration, these should be brought to the Sub Committee’s attention at the appropriate time, for example the Planning Protocol.  

There was some discussion about whether a dispensation was even necessary to speak or vote on Council Tax issues, given the previous guidance from the Department for Communities and Local Government.  The Comptroller and City Solicitor advised that, even if the Committee were to come to the same view about this, it would not be determinative.  As a breach of the rules regarding disclosable pecuniary interests was a criminal matter, it would not be appropriate for the Committee to refuse to consider a request for a dispensation on this basis where a Member wished to make such a request.

As some of the current dispensations would expire ahead of the Ward Elections in March 2017, it was agreed that all Members should be contacted in December 2016 to ensure that relevant dispensations were in place, where appropriate (where Members wished to speak or vote on housing or Council Tax issues) ahead of the budget report being submitted to the Court of Common Council in early 2017.

Resolved:- That –

(i) the list of requests for dispensations be submitted to Members ahead of consideration of all future dispensation requests and the details of every request logged henceforth to provide details of why a dispensation was required, by whom and for how long; and

(ii) as some of the current dispensations would expire ahead of the Ward Elections in March 2017, those Members should be contacted in December 2016 to ensure that relevant dispensations were in place, where appropriate (where Members wished to speak or vote on housing or Council Tax issues) ahead of the budget report being submitted to the Court of Common Council in early 2017.