The Standards Committee of Wrexham County Borough Council met on 2 September 2025 to discuss the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales annual report, and the draft annual report of the Standards Committee. The meeting was also scheduled to confirm the minutes of the meetings held on 3 June 2025 and 22 July 2025.

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales Annual Report

The committee was scheduled to consider the annual report of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW). The PSOW has three main roles:

• Investigating complaints about public services
• Considering complaints about councillors breaching the Code of Conduct¹
• Driving systemic improvement of public services and standards of conduct in local government in Wales

The report noted that the PSOW received 315 Code of Conduct complaints during the reporting period, 4% less than the previous year, though 36% more than in 2019-20. Town and community council complaints remain the largest group overall with a 7% increase in these complaints.

The nature of the Code of Conduct complaints received is broken down according to the Nolan Principles of Conduct in Public Life² as follows:

The report stated that generally the cases that they categorise under 'respect' are lower-level complaints, and the complaints that they categorise under 'equality' commonly involve more serious allegations of bullying or discrimination.

The PSOW applies a 'public interest test' to decide which cases to investigate, and generally only investigates a small proportion of the Code of Conduct complaints received, which the report says shows that standards of conduct in local government are generally good.

The report summarised examples of Code of Conduct cases concluded in the reporting year.

The monitoring officer, Linda Roberts, recommended that the Standards Committee note the contents of the report.

Draft Annual Report of the Standards Committee

The committee was scheduled to consider the draft annual report of the Standards Committee. The report explained how the committee is formed, provided an understanding of the work the Committee might undertake and described what has been done over the past 12 months.

The report listed the members of the committee, including Mrs Elizabeth Granger, Chair, Mr Stephen Tilston, Vice-Chair, Councillor Bryan Apsley, Councillor I David Bithell MBE, Councillor Hugh Jones, Ms Sonia Benbow-Jones - Community Councillor, Mr Adam Fuller, Kelly Huxley-Roberts, and Kerry Mackay.

The report noted that under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021³ there is a duty on Group Leaders to take reasonable steps to promote and maintain high standards of conduct by members of the group. The report stated that for the period 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025 the four Group Leaders completed the reports requested and copies are included with the report to Council.

The committee considered a report from the Ombudsman which culminated in a Standards Hearing into the conduct of Community Councillor Gareth Baines of Chirk Town Council at a special meeting (hearing) on 13 November 2024. The Committee found that Gareth Baines had breached the Code of Conduct and imposed a sanction of censure, the only sanction available as he had resigned from the Town Council.