Issue - meetings
New Member Code of Conduct - update report
Meeting: 22/04/2021 - Standards Advisory Committee (Item 3)
3 New Member Code of Conduct - update report PDF 314 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
A working group was set up and it has had two meetings so far and a good draft had been prepared. There were a couple of areas yet to be finalised. The report set out the main areas that had been covered to date. For example, the working group discussed how to include the existing text on bullying and wording on gifts and hospitality. A final group meeting will look to complete the proposed new code.
A copy of the draft new code had been circulated to Members of the Committee as a background document.
The Chair reported that the working group had been very successful. He welcomed comments from the meeting. The Committee discussed the work to date and made a number of comments and suggestions including:
· That a ‘large gifts’ threshold was a good idea but £100 was probably too low given the usual ‘two tickets to an event’ could easily cost more than £100 whereas this was attempting to discourage extreme gifts and hospitality. It was also maybe slightly too prescriptive in saying offers should ‘always’ be refused.
· Welcomed the attempt to support Members who were receiving abuse from the public.
· Should the language in relation to taking decisions be clearer on role of whips.
· Question whether ‘trivial’ and ‘malicious’ were appropriate words in relation to making complaints. ‘Not having ‘sufficient grounds’ may be more appropriate.
· Whether there needed to be more case studies with model answers to bring it to life, for example about what intimidation means. The Monitoring Officer agreed to research what was available.
Concluding the discussion it was requested that final comments be received by the end of May as the intention was to then circulate the draft Code to the political groups for discussion followed by submission to July Standards Advisory Committee and then Council for final agreement.
RESOLVED
1. To note the report.