Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk providing Members with an overview of the annual update to the Members’ Declarations which commenced in July 2019.

In response to questions, the Town Clerk clarified that there was no statutory requirement for an annual update to take place. The Code of Conduct requires Members to maintain an up to date register and the guidance provides for an annual reminder to be sent for this purpose. The Town Clerk also highlighted the disappointing response rate from both elected and relevant Co-opted Members to date.

With this in mind, it was recognised that the amount of time currently dedicated by Officers to undertaking this piece of work was not sustainable given the response rates. It was therefore proposed that, whilst a completely hands-off approach would not be desirable, the Town Clerk should be instructed to simply issue an annual reminder to all Members and Co-optees to check and update forms where necessary. The onus would therefore be on individual Members/Co-optees to manage their own entries. Current arrangements around the chasing and logging of such updates would cease.

RESOLVED – That Members note the report and instruct the Town Clerk to move to a system whereby Members were simply reminded, on an annual basis, to take responsibility for checking and updating their entries.