Standards Committee

The Standards Committee  

What is the Standards Committee? The aim of the Standards Committee is to promote high standards of ethical conduct among elected councillors and independent members.  The committee’s role is to oversee the standards of behaviour of councillors and advise on good practice in relation to ethics and probity.  The responsibility for considering any complaint that a member of this council has breached the Members’ Code of Conduct is now the responsibility of the local Standards Committee.   

Membership of the Standards Committee The committee is made up of nine borough councillors supported by non-voting independent members, parish members and independent persons.  

What does the Standards Committee do? The Standards Committee gives the council advice on adopting a local Code of Conduct; monitors the implementation of the Code; and promotes the maintenance of high standards of conduct for council members.  It is able to grant dispensations to members, allowing them to take part, and vote in, certain circumstances when they would not normally be entitled so to do.  Finally, the committee has power to investigate complaints that councillors have breached the Members' Code of Conduct, and if appropriate to hold formal hearings and to impose penalties.  The Standards Committee normally meets three or four times a year.

What is the Councillors’ Code of Conduct? The council has adopted a local Code of Conduct that sets out the rules governing the behaviour of its members.  The Code covers such things as avoiding conflicts of interest and treating everybody with respect.  

Complaints against Councillors The council’s Standards Committee has responsibility for considering any complaints that a  borough or parish councillor may have breached the Code of Conduct.  Any complaints, therefore, should be made to the borough’s Standards Committee - via the council’s Monitoring Officer by filling out a complaint form(link is external).

  It is important to remember, however, that complaints about the policies or performance of the council or about the policies or views of an individual councillor do not fall under the Code.  

What the Committee can't do

The committee can only investigate actions by individual councillors that are covered by the Code of Conduct.  There are some complaints we cannot investigate, including:

Complaints that are not in writing (unless you have difficulty writing, in which case we will help you formulate a written complaint) – we do, however, accept complaints by email; and

complaints that are anonymous - unless they are about something exceptionally serious.

If your complaint is about any of the following issues then you should use the Comments, Complaints and Compliments facility:

something the council has done;

the way in which the Council conducts and records its meetings; and

council employees, contractors or others working for the council.

Register of Members' Interests All councillors are obliged under the Code to record their financial interests in a register.  Information on the kind of interests that must be registered can be found in paragraphs 14 and 15 of the Code of Conduct.  Each councillor's entry is available under their individual record on the Your Councillor page(link is external).  You can also arrange to view hard copy entries at Ilkeston Town Hall by advance appointment with the Committee, Scrutiny and Civic Affairs Manager.  Telephone  0115 907 1116 to make an appointment.  

The Standards Committee and dispensations The Standards Committee is responsible for determining requests for dispensations.  In certain circumstances (set out below) councillors may be granted a dispensation which enables them to take part in council business where this would otherwise be prohibited because a councillor has a prejudicial interest.  

The Standards Committee may only grant a dispensation in the following circumstances:

where more than 50% of the councillors who would be entitled to vote at a meeting are otherwise prohibited from voting; or

where the number of councillors that are prohibited from voting at a meeting would upset the political balance of the meeting to the extent that the outcome of voting would be prejudiced.

  The Standards Committee has approved a protocol for dispensation applications and an application form for member use when making such an application.   The Standards Committee’s full terms of reference; the procedures relating to complaints against the conduct of councillors; the current Code of Conduct; a councillor conduct complaint form; a comment, complaint and compliment form; the dispensations protocol, and a dispensations application form can be downloaded from the council’s website.