Agenda item

The Committee received and noted the Monitoring Officer’s annual report about decisions taken on standards allegations against borough and parish councillors for the 12-month period ending 31 December 2021.

The Committee noted that during this period, there had been 14 complaints in total,

all of which involved borough councillors.

Seven of the complaints had failed the initial jurisdiction test, none had proceeded to investigation; two were subject to no further action at initial assessment stage and five were subject to informal resolution. There were six ongoing complaints at the time of writing the Annual Report.

By way of comparison and to put the statistical information on the number of complaints received into context, the Supplementary Information sheet circulated at the meeting noted that the number of misconduct allegations received by the Monitoring Officer over the past three years was as follows:

The Monitoring Officer reported on two common themes relating to the complaints received:

·       the use of social media in relation to the complaints, and

·       the use of inflammatory language being used by Councillors on social media and emails leading to complaints.

The Committee expressed disappointment that the use, or misuse, of social media was a recurrent theme bearing in mind the Social Media Guidance for Councillors that the Corporate Governance Task Group had drafted, that the Committee had endorsed, and that the Executive had adopted in 2020.

The following points were raised by the Committee in the debate:

·     A request that future Annual Reports set out the comparative statistical information in respect of misconduct complaints for the previous three years.

·       A further request that the table setting out details of the decisions taken in relation to allegations of misconduct appended to the report should include an additional column showing the date of file closure; and where the matter was still ongoing, the reason(s) for this.

·       The Chairman requested clarification as to whether the six ongoing complaints were included in the 14 complaints received overall, or whether they related to complaints from previous years.

·       In response to concerns over actions that could in circumstances where councillors were being harassed or intimidated by members of the public, councillors were advised to contact the Monitoring Officer for advice and assistance.  It was noted that Surrey Police had previously advised councillors on personal safety where they had received threats or intimidation.

The Committee therefore

RESOLVED: That the cases referred to the Monitoring Officer under the Council’s arrangements for dealing with allegations of misconduct for the period 1 January to 31 December 2021, be noted subject to the comments referred to above and the following further actions:

Reasons:

·     To ensure members of the Committee and others to whom the report is circulated are kept up to date with standards complaints received and enable them to consider learning points for the future.

·     To seek to promote and maintain high standards of conduct amongst Members.