Agenda item

Further to Minute 21 of the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities, the City Council considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which sought approval to the revised Model Code of Conduct and to recommend to Council to adopt the revised Model Code of Conduct.

The Local Government Association (LGA), following a consultation held in summer of 2020, published a new Model Code of Conduct for Members. The new Model Code of Conduct was produced on the recommendation of the Committee on Standards in Public Life in its report on local authority standards published in January 2019. The Ethics Committee made representations to the LGA on the wording of the proposed Code.

Ethics Committee considered the new Model Code of Conduct at its meeting on 21 January 2021. Its comments and observations were summarised in the report. On 17 February 2021, the Constitutional Advisory Panel considered a revised Code which incorporated the changes suggested by the Ethics Committee. The Panel resolved to recommend to the Cabinet Member that he recommend to full Council the adoption of the revised Code set out in the appendix to the report.

The Council’s current Code of Conduct for Elected and Co-opted Members was adopted by the Council in 2012. While there have been some amendments to it, it has remained largely the same since then.  The publication of the new Model Code provided an ideal opportunity to consider moving from its current Code to the new one.

The report provided further information and outlined what the main points of the Model Code of Conduct were.

Ethics Committee was asked to consider the Model Code of Conduct and whether they wished to recommend its adoption by the Council, either as drafted or with modifications. The Committee made a number of comments in relation to the Model Code and in its adoption by the City Council, in particular: -

·  The Committee welcomed that the term “treating others with respect” was favoured rather than “with civility”, together with the definitions provided in the Model Code

·  That the threshold for the registration of gifts and hospitality should be set at £50 in line with the national threshold

·  That the Council should extend the obligation to declare membership of outside bodies to include those which currently must be declared

·  That appropriate training to new and existing Members should be provided following the adoption of the new Code

·  That the Member Complaints Protocol should be strengthened and updated to reflect any new changes to the Code

·  That the Model Code should be amended to be more user friendly and easier to reference, to include using the second person, to remove unnecessary preamble, to be numbered, and to include the Nolan Principles at the forefront of the document, rather than as an Appendix.

The revised Code of Conduct was attached as an Appendix to the report and took into account the points made by the Ethics Committee. The revised Code of Conduct was endorsed by the Constitutional Advisory Panel on 17 February 2021.

RESOLVED that, the City Council adopts the revised Model Code of Conduct for Elected and Co-opted Members.