The Kirklees Council Standards Committee met on 24 September 2025 to discuss updates on code of conduct complaints and recent developments in local government standards. The committee received reports on both topics, noting the contents of each.

Code of Conduct Complaints Update

The committee received a report updating them on code of conduct complaints received since their last meeting in March 2025.

The report noted that the Monitoring Officer had received 11 complaints relating to alleged breaches of the code of conduct since 1 March 2025. Ten of these related to Kirklees councillors and one related to town or parish councillors. Eight Kirklees councillors and one town or parish councillor were subject to complaints. Two complaints were not pursued, four were not progressed after the initial assessment process, one was resolved informally, and one resulted in a finding of breach. The remaining three complaints were under investigation.

The report also provided an update on the nine complaints that were ongoing from the previous report: three were dismissed at the initial stage, one was dealt with informally, and a breach was found to have occurred in the remaining five. Three complaints have been carried forward to the next reporting period.

Comparing the current reporting period with the previous one (1 September 2024 to the end of February 2025), the report indicated that the overall number of complaints has fallen from 22 to 11. The number of councillors complained about has also decreased. The nature of complaints in the current report concerned social media behaviour (six complaints relating to three members), correspondence (three complaints about four members), failure to comply with sanctions from a previous complaint (one complaint about one member), and one complaint that was not pursued.

The report included a summary table informing members of standards decisions that have been published on the Kirklees website. In line with the decision of the committee, the published decisions will now only be complaints that have been upheld.

The published decisions included:

• Denby Dale Parish Council, Councillor Glenn Hirst, failure to comply with sanctions, 27/06/2025, complaint upheld
• Kirklees Council, Councillor Hanifa Darwan, member's behaviour during meetings, 23/05/2005, complaint upheld
• Denby Dale Parish Council, Councillor Glenn Hirst, member's use of social media, 24/03/2025, complaint upheld
• Kirklees Council, Councillor Ammar Anwar, member's behaviours, 10/02/2025, complaint upheld
• Holme Valley Parish Council, Councillor James Dalton, member's use of social media, 05/07/2023, complaint upheld
• Holme Valley Parish Council, Councillor James Dalton, member's use of social media, 06/12/2021, complaint upheld

The committee noted that the December 2021 entry concerning former Councillor James Dalton would be removed in December once it had passed four years, in line with previous decisions.

The committee resolved to note the report.

Cases and News Update

The committee received a report to brief members on any developments and news on matters of local government ethics since the last meeting in March 2025.

The report included news items, relevant case law, and recent published decisions from other local authorities or standards boards. It also provided an update on the work of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL), particularly following their report 'Ethical Standards in Local Government'.

News

The report highlighted several news items:

• In May 2025, Local Government Lawyer reported on the findings of the standards committee at King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council into allegations that a member of the planning committee, who was unable to attend a meeting, had influenced the decision making by messaging another committee member during the meeting. The complaint was upheld and it was recommended that the councillor be removed from the planning committee.
• In May 2025, Local Government Lawyer reported that a successful Durham County Council candidate was forced to step down as he was an employee of the authority.
• In June 2025, Local Government Lawyer reported that a former councillor at Cornwall Council had been reported to the Police over a failure to properly declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest¹. The decision notice made reference to the fact that Louis Gardner was no longer a councillor and that a breach of this nature would normally in a recommendation of a censure, as the Subject Member is no longer a Councillor no further action can be taken beyond the referral to the police.
• In June 2025, there was a report of a Tameside councillor who had been found to be in breach of the code of conduct, following social media comments that were made about riots that took place in Leeds in the summer of 2024.
• In an update to a story previously reported on, the trial of the former Labour councillor, Ricky Jones, took place in August and he was found not guilty of encouraging violent disorder after it was alleged that he called for protestors' throats to be cut. The verdict drew criticism and comparison with the case of Lucy Connolly, despite her having entered a guilty plea and not facing a trial.

Recent Published Decisions

The report noted that some local authorities in England publish their decisions on member complaints, as do the Standards Boards in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Standards Commission for Scotland has considered six cases since March 2025, finding breaches in five. These resulted in suspensions of the members complained of in five of the cases, with one member being censured. The complaints were failures in respect of interests, disrespectful behaviour, breach of equality duties and behaviour in meetings.

The Commissioner for Standards in Northern Ireland has heard two cases since March 2025, both resulting in suspensions for the members complained of. One case involved a failure to declare an interest and the other involves a conflict of interests.

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales investigated 13 cases, none of which were upheld. The subject of the complaints were equality and respect, duty to uphold the law and failures around interests.

Case Law

The Supreme Court has recently handed down a ruling on The Spitalfields Historic Building Trust, R. (on the application of) v London Borough of Tower Hamlets & Anor [2025] UKSC 11, which concerned a planning committee and restrictions on who could attend and vote where a decision had been deferred.

The work of the Committee on Standards in Public Life

In March 2025, the Committee on Standards in Public Life published its report 'Recognising and responding to early warning signs in public sector bodies'.

In June, the committee published its annual report, which noted the 2019 report on Local Government Ethical Standards, referencing the December 2024 consultation exercise.

The consultation on local standards and conduct

There has been no published feedback so far on the responses to the consultation.

The committee resolved to note the report.