Issue - meetings
Dispensations under section 33 of the Localism Act 2011
Meeting: 14/03/2018 - Standards Advisory Committee (Item 3)
3 Dispensations under section 33 of the Localism Act 2011 PDF 89 KB
Minutes:
The Corporate Director Governance introduced the report which informed the Committee of the framework for dispensations under the Localism Act 2011 and their application since January 2018.
During discussion, the Committee noted:
- That it was a good governance practice to notify Members of how the section 33 power was being used.
- That the grant of specific dispensations for full Council on 17 January 2018 had enabled Members to continue to participate in the consideration of two items relating to housing in Tower Hamlets and fire safety respectively. Had these dispensations not been granted there would have been a significant impact on the discussion of the item.
- That the Register of Interests would be updated following the forthcoming Local and Mayoral elections.
- The clarification relating to dispensations on housing matters was provided by the Corporate Director Governance around self-employed councillors.
- That the Corporate Director Governance had written to individual Members providing guidance on the definition of a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI) and the rationale for their use and how declarations should be made.
- The advice that even in situations where a decision is made by the Executive Mayor, a Member at a meeting may be required to declare a DPI as s/he may still have the ability to influence a matter during the discussion/debate..
- That failure to declare a DPI is a criminal offence.
The Committee raised a number of queries around how DPI’s apply to self-employed councillors and felt that a guidance paper outlining how declarations should be made would provide clarity; Members asked that illustrative scenarios should be included. The Corporate Director Governance agreed that she would circulate more widely the guidance she had already provided.
RESOLVED
1. That the dispensations granted by the Monitoring Officer detailed in paragraph 3.4 of the report be noted.
2. That issues raised by the Committee be taken into account and a guidance paper including scenarios be developed and reported to a future meeting.