Standards

What is the Standards Committee?

All Councils have a Standards Committee. The aim is to promote high standards of ethical conduct among elected councillors, independent and co-opted members. Our Standards Committee is responsible for considering any complaint that a member has breached the Members Code of Conduct. The framework is overseen by Standards for England.

What does the Standards Committee do?

The Standards Committee gives the council advice on adopting a local code of conduct, monitoring the effectiveness of the code and promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct for members. It also responds to national reviews and consultations on standards related issues and is able to grant dispensations to members allowing them to take part and vote in certain circumstances, when they would not otherwise be entitled to. The committee also has power to conduct formal hearings to hear complaints that a member may have breached the Members Code of Conduct.

The Full Terms of reference for the Standards Committee are listed in Part 3 of our Constitution: Responsibility for Functions.

• The Standards Committee Work Programme 2010/2011

• Annual Report 2009/2010

• Agendas for future meetings and documents from past meetings

Membership of the Standards Committee

The Committee is made up of five independent members and six councillors.

If you would like to view the Declaration of Interests for independent members, please click on their names in the table below. To view councillor’s Declaration of Interests please use the Your Councillor search.

Independent Members of the Standards Committee are not elected but are appointed by the council for a specific term through a recruitment and selection process. They must demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to perform the role and fulfil certain requirements to demonstrate their independence from the council. The term of office of present independent members ends in 2011.

The role of the Independent Member is vital to the work of the committee and only an Independent Member can be the Chair of the committee and any of its sub-committees.

What is the 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, co-opted and independent members of the Council are covered by the code. Click on the link to download the Councillors Code of Conduct.

There are also local protocols associated with the Code of Conduct covering the following:

§ Member/employee relations

§ Planning matters

§ Gifts and hospitality

These are all contained in the document above.

Complaints and investigations against councillors and co-opted members

Our Standards Committee is responsible for considering any complaint that a member has breached the Members Code of Conduct.

Any person can make a complaint that a councillor or co-opted member* has breached the Code of Conduct.

*A co-opted member is a voting member of the authority or one of its committees who was appointed to their position rather than elected.

Please note that the sub-committee can only consider complaints about the behaviour of individual councillors, not about the authority as a whole or the people employed by it.

• Complaint Form (pdf for printing)
• What you can make a complaint about
• Guidance for filling out complaint form

The address for complaints is on the form above. Alternatively, you can e mail ann-maria.brown@crawley.gov.uk or fax 01293 438605.

These additional documents set our Procedure for Dealing with Complaints and Procedure for Investigations and Hearing Sub-Committee Determinations

The Monitoring Officer

The Monitoring Officer has a number of statutory functions governing local investigations into member conduct. Crawley Borough Council’s Monitoring Officer is Ann-Maria Brown, Head of Legal and Democratic Services.

The Monitoring Officer is required to prepare a report to Council where it appears to her that the authority has or is about to do anything which would be in contravention of the law or which would constitute maladministration.

Before publishing any report, the Monitoring Officer has a duty to consult with the Cabinet and the Chief Finance Officer. Depending upon whether or not the function concerned is an executive one, the report has to be considered either by Full Council or by the Cabinet and the publication of the report has the effect of suspending the proposed action pending consideration of the report.

• The Council’s Monitoring Officer Protocol

Standards for England

Standards for England (formerly the Standards Board for England) provides an independent, national overview to councils to promote and improve the ethical behaviour of their members. It is a non-departmental public body and strategic regulator that provides support as well as investigating cases which are not appropriate for authorities to deal with themselves.

Visit the Standards for England website to find out more.

Telephone: 0845 078 8181. Fax: 0161 817 5499. Email: enquiries@standardsforengland.gov.uk .

Standards for England publishes regular bulletins on their website.