All
councils are required to establish a Standards Committee as part of
an ethical framework for public authorities following the Local
Government Act 2000. The Standards
Committee deals with Councillors standards and behaviour. It
advises on a local Code of Conduct, hears cases on potential
breaches, grants dispensations in certain circumstances and hears
complaints that have been referred by the Monitoring
Officer.
Code of Conduct:
Every Council is required to adopt a Code of Conduct that sets
out the rules governing the behaviour of its members. All elected
or co-opted members of the Council are covered by the code.
Islington’s Code of Conduct is available in Part 6 of the
Council’s
Constitution.
Monitoring
Officer:
The
Monitoring Officer is appointed under Section 5 of the Local
Government and Housing Act 1989 and has a number of statutory
functions in addition to those recently conferred under the Local
Government Act 2000 and subsequent regulations governing local
investigations into member conduct. Complaints can be made to the
Council’s Monitoring Officer by filling out a
Complaint
Form.
Standards
Committee procedures:
The
Standards Committee has adopted procedures governing the process of
initial assessment of complaints, investigation and hearing of
complaints. Any person can make a complaint that a Councillor or
co-opted member has breached the Code of Conduct. It is important
to remember, however, that complaints about the policies or
performance of the Council do not fall under the Code.
The
Standards Committee will only meet as and when necessary and there
are therefore no meetings programmed. Any meetings arranged will
show in the list of meetings.
There are some complaints we cannot investigate,
including:
- Complaints where a Member is not named;
- Complaints that are not in writing;
- Incidents or actions that are not covered by the Code of
Conduct;
- Incidents that are about a fault in the way the Council has or
has not done something. This is known as maladministration and may
be a matter for the Local Government Ombudsman;
- Complaints about people employed by local authorities, the
Council’s normal complaints procedure should be used for this
type of complaint;
- Incidents that happened before a Member was elected;
- Incidents that happened before the Council adopted its local
Code of Conduct on 26 June 2012;
- Complaints about the way in which the Council conducts and
records its meetings.
Independent
Persons:
Local authorities must
appoint at least one ‘independent person’ to advise the
council before it makes a decision on an allegation.
The Council appointed Luke Rigg and Robert Milne as
Independent Persons for Standards for a 4 year term of office on 24
September 2020.
If you have any questions
please contact:
Philippa Green
Head of Democratic Services and Governance
Islington Council
Town Hall
Upper Street
London
N1 2UD
Telephone: 020 7527 3184
Email: philippa.green@islington.gov.uk
