Local investigations and other action

From May 2008, it was up to standards committees of local authorities to refer complaints to a monitoring officer that a member has breached the Code of Conduct.

The following guidance assists local authorities with conducting investigations under the new framework. It consists of an overview of local investigations and other action and a guide to conducting an investigation which is accompanied by a toolkit of useful documents. Both of these guides were published in June 2008.

In September 2008, authorities were sent a folder containing the above guidance and that in the guidance for standards committees section, for their monitoring officer, deputy monitoring officer, standards committee chair and standards committee vice chair. A folder was also sent to county secretaries.

Note – Further guidance on Other Action was published in May 2009 in response to feedback from authorities. This will be sent to authorities in summer 2009 (together with guidance on joint standards committees) for inclusion in their folders.

Further folders requested by authorities will be charged at £30.00 each to cover costs - if you require extra folders, please contact publications@standardsforengland.gov.uk. Alternatively, all of the information contained in the folder is available to download below and in the Standards committees section.

Downloads

Local investigations and other action (PDF File) updated March 2010

Local investigations and other action - toolkit (Online Guide) published June 2008

How to conduct an investigation (PDF File) updated March 2010

The guides below were written prior to May 2008 for use by local authorities, standards committees and monitoring officers on investigating complaints, and may be useful for investigations that commenced under the old framework: