Agenda and minutes

To approve the record of the meeting held on 13 November 2012.

The record of the meeting held on 13 November 2012 were agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct. 

To receive apologies for absence. 

There were none. 

The Chairman will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he/she has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report. 

There were none. 

A member need only disclose at any meeting the existence of a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) in a matter to be considered at that meeting if that DPI has not been entered on the disclosable pecuniary interests register maintained by the Monitoring Officer.

A member disclosing a DPI at a meeting must thereafter notify the Monitoring Officer in writing of that interest within 28 days from the date of disclosure at the meeting.

A member may not participate in a discussion of or vote on any matter in which he or she has a DPI (both those already registered and those disclosed at the meeting) and must withdraw from the room during such discussion/vote.

Members may choose to voluntarily disclose a DPI at a meeting even if it is registered on the council’s register of disclosable pecuniary interests but there is no legal requirement to do so.

In line with the training provided to members by the Monitoring Officer members will also need to consider bias and pre-determination in certain circumstances and whether they have a conflict of interest or should otherwise leave the room for Code reasons. 

There were none. 

This report presents a draft protocol for the investigation of offences under the Localism Act 2011 in Kent and Medway, produced by the Police for consideration and comment.

Discussion:

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report, which detailed the draft protocol from the Police on how they will deal with investigations relating to criminal offences under section 34 of the Localism Act 2011.

In addition, the Monitoring Officer reported to the committee that there had been recent discussions in Parliament, which criticised many Council Monitoring Officers for recreating the old Standards regime.  He felt confident that Medway had not done this and had instead streamlined the previous system, which was now lighter touch with the right emphasis on informal resolution wherever possible. He reported that in addition to the two complaints which the committee had considered at their last meeting he had informally resolved five concerns before they became formal complaints in accordance with the new procedure.

One Member suggested that the protocol should have been presented in a civilian friendly manner, as there were some Latin references and acronyms that were hard to follow.

Members then asked how this information would be given to other Members of the Council.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed that he would incorporate this into the next member training session on interests, which would be held in the next few months.

Decision:

The committee noted the report and draft protocol.