Issue - meetings

To consider and approve the Protocol for Member/Officer Relations.

81.1           The report of the Monitoring Officer, circulated at Pages No. 59-73, attached a revised Protocol for Member/Officer Relations which Members were asked to consider and approve.

81.2           The Chair of the Standards Committee explained that, at its meeting on 12 October 2015, his Committee had considered a report which detailed a proposed work programme for the Committee for 2015/16. At that time it had been agreed that the Member/Officer Relations Protocol would be reviewed and, in order to complete that task, it was decided that the whole Committee would meet as a Working Group and seek the views of Members and senior Officers on the effectiveness of the Protocol and what, if any, changes would improve it. The Working Group had developed the revised Protocol over a number of meetings and, having spoken to a range of Members and Officers, at its meeting on 21 March 2016 the Committee had recommended a revised Protocol to the Council for approval. The Chair thanked those who had been involved in the review and had taken the time to provide their views and, accordingly, he proposed, and it was seconded, that the revised Protocol be approved.

81.3           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the revised Protocol for Member/Officer Relations, as                                            attached at Appendix 1 to the report, be APPROVED.

To consider the revised Protocol for Member/Officer Relations and recommend it to Council for approval and adoption.

16.1           The report of the Monitoring Officer, circulated at Pages No. 5-24, asked Members to consider the proposed amendments to the Protocol for Member/Officer Relations and to recommend the Protocol to the Council for approval.  

16.2           The Monitoring Officer explained that the Standards Committee had met as a Working Group on two occasions to review the Protocol and during that process had met with a number of Members and Officers to gain their views. The Working Group had considered the amendments that were required to be made to the Protocol and had published the amended version on the Council’s intranet for consultation purposes. As there had been no further major amendments suggested, the Working Group was happy for the amended Protocol to be circulated to the Standards Committee without the need for a further meeting of the Working Group.

16.3           Attention was drawn to Appendix 3 to the report which set out the proposed amended Protocol and, for completeness, Appendices 1 and 2 were also attached to the report which showed the comments that had been received throughout the process and the responses to those from the Working Group. In terms of Appendix 2, the Monitoring Officer asked Members to consider if they would like to make any further amendments taking those points into account.

16.4           During the discussion which ensued, it was agreed that no further amendments needed to be made. One Member suggested that many of the Members and Officers that the Working Group had spoken to had not read the Protocol until they had been asked to comment on it and he questioned whether something could be done to address this. In response, the Monitoring Officer explained that people only tended to read the document when they needed it but it was part of the Constitution so it was available to all, including members of the public.

16.5           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That it be RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the revised                              Protocol for Member/Officer Relations, as attached to the report                             at Appendix 3, be APPROVED.