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Notifications to parish and town councils concerning complaints about their members and the Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008 (the 2008 Regulations)

The 2008 Regulations make it clear that parish and town councils must be given notification that a complaint concerning one of their members has been assessed. After that, unless the initial assessment sub-committee decides to take no action on the complaint, the parish or town council must then be informed of certain significant subsequent steps taken in dealing with that complaint.

What information should be received?

Where a sub-committee of a standards committee meets to assess an allegation or to review a decision it must send in writing to the parish or town council concerned the main points considered, its conclusions, the reasons for its decision and may name the member unless to do so is not in the public interest or would prejudice an investigation. The decisions are whether to investigate the allegation, or whether to take some other action in relation to the alleged behaviour.

A parish or town council should also receive notification after a standards committee meets to consider the report into an investigation and whether to accept a finding about whether a councillor has breached the code of conduct or not.  They should also receive notification of the outcome of a hearing and reasons for it, if one is held.

When should notifications be sent?

The duty to give notifications has no specific time frame. The general rule is that notification should be given as soon as is reasonably practicable. However, Standards for England recommend that notification be sent out within five working days of the decision being made for most decisions and within two weeks of any hearing being concluded.

The purpose of notifications

As a parish or town council you will be given these notifications to inform you of a case against one of your members and to keep you informed of significant events as the case progresses. This is important to so that you have time to prepare or preserve evidence relevant to the complaint. You will also be able to make appropriate arrangements between the member and an employee where the complaint has been made by the employee. The rationale of the notification is to facilitate the standards committee’s action, not to start new action within the parish or town council.

What to do when you get a notification

Each council needs to consider what it can lawfully do with the notifications it receives. Parish or town councils should consider putting in place protocols that deal with:

• access to information
• sharing of information
• how various legal obligations are met including those under the general law of confidentiality, the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.

Notification procedures

Standards for England recommend that each parish or town council adopt procedures about how to deal with notifications. The clerk should then notify the monitoring officer of these procedures once they have been implemented so that the monitoring officer knows who to send the notifications to. The rules should clearly set out the limits on what information each member, employee and the public are able to receive about each complaint.

They should:

• Ensure that if the council is to be informed of a notification it is normally done by sending out an information item for members, rather than including the notification on the agenda of a council meeting.
• Choose a nominated employee (usually the clerk) and select a council committee to deal with and be informed of such notifications when they are received.
• The nominated employee and the committee should, if required to discuss the notification at a council meeting:
  • draft the summonses and agendas so the identity and subject matter of the complaint are not disclosed
  • ensure that any background papers are not made public
  • ensure that the public and press are excluded from meetings where appropriate
  • ensure that the minutes of meetings are written so as to preserve confidentiality
  • make appropriate arrangements, where the complainant is an employee, between the employee and the subject member.
• Take into account who will deal with providing further evidence or information needed by the standards committee about a complaint, be it the nominated employee or a member of the selected council committee.

By having appropriate arrangements in place your parish or town council will ensure that the rights of all concerned in a complaint will be considered. They will also ensure that complaints are dealt with lawfully, effectively and fairly, and will identify only those who need to know or are entitled to know certain information at the various stages of a complaint.

Find out more

• Please read our Code of Conduct: Guidance for members 2007
• Call our enquiries line on 0845 078 8181
• Email us at enquiries@standardsforengland.gov.uk

Published on 4th January 2010.

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