Issue - meetings
Register of Members' Gifts & Hospitality
Meeting: 24/10/2018 - Standards Advisory Committee (Item 3)
3 Register of Members' Gifts & Hospitality PDF 80 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Corporate Director Governance presented the report informing the Committee that:
- The report provided details of gifts and hospitality registered between 1 October 2017 and 30 September 2018.
- An audit of the registration of gifts and hospitality had been completed and returned a substantial assurance.
- There were fewer registrations of gifts and hospitality declined than registrations of those accepted. To ensure that Members were aware of their dual obligations, the matter would be taken forward by Officers.
The Corporate Director Governance asked Members to consider if they wished failure to report registrations within the 28 days specified in the Member Code of Conduct to be referred to Standards Advisory Committee and Members agreed that this would be an appropriate course of action.
In discussion, Members received the following additional information.
- Where Officers become aware of failure to register gifts and hospitality in accordance with procedure, they will write to Councillors to highlight the matter and request that it be addressed.
- To defend integrity and high standards a statement would be prepared for circulation to Members. The statement would outline the compliance expected and include a message around purpose and outcome. The Committee would be asked to endorse the approach before distribution to Members,
- In their role, Councillors could expect lobbying and this was part of Ward duties. However a Councillor should not be involved in a decision on which they had lobbied.
Arising from the discussion, the following observations from Committee Members were noted:
- Fewer than expected declarations had been made by members of the Council’s development committees.
- There had been fewer than expected declarations of accepting hospitality in the form of wedding invitations and these were likely to be in excess of the £25 threshold.
- Some descriptions of gifts or hospitality received were vague and, the value of some appeared to be estimated.
The Committee requested:
- That a report on registration of gifts and hospitality be made to the Committee every 6 months.
- To ensure that Members were aware of their dual obligations in regards to declarations of gifts and hospitality that the matter would be monitored by Officers.
- That examples of registrations of gifts and hospitality be included in the next Ethics and Probity training.
- That failure to report registrations within the 28 days specified in the Member Code of Conduct to be referred to Standards Advisory Committee
RESOLVED
1. That the declarations of Gifts and/or hospitality received as reported in Appendix 1 be noted.
2. That failure to report registrations of gifts and hospitality within the 28 days specified in the Member Code of Conduct to be reported to Standards Advisory Committee.
3. That the above actions requested by Members be taken forward.
ACTION BY:B McKenzie, Head of Member Support
A Burgio, Democratic Services Officer