Agenda and minutes

There were no substitutions.  Cllr Swift attended the meeting under the provisions of Procedure Rule 1.37b

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests or personal or personal and prejudicial interests made at the meeting.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting of this committeeheld on 9 November 2022, having been printed and circulated amongst the members, be taken as read and correctly recorded and be signed by the chairman.

The Director: Governance and Communities submitted a report providing an update on work arising from consideration of the recent Local Government Association (LGA) publication “Debate Not Hate” on preventing abuse and intimidation in public and political settings.  The LGA report was considered at  a previous meeting (minute 434 refers) and it was resolved that officers conduct further work on potential improvements, feeding back to the Standards Committee. 

The report confirmed that, following internal discussions, the following actions had now been implemented or were planned. 

Ø  A dedicated system had been established within the Group Offices to record abusive, intimidatory or threatening communications.  There was an option to pass these communications to Humberside Police’s Single Point of Contact (SPOC) where required.

Ø  Discussions continued to explore the possibility of the Confidential Counselling and Welfare Service being made available to the council’s elected members, in line with staff.  Members would be able to self-refer or be referred via Group Secretaries.

Ø  Discussions continued with Humberside Police to ascertain the Force’s response to Recommendation 3of the LGAs report which requires: “Police forces should work to improve the consistency of responses to abuse and threats made against councillors and take a risk-based approach that accounts for the specific risks that councillors face, as they do with other high-risk individuals, such as MPs. This should include identifying best practice in relation to councillor support and safety and sharing it across the country.” To this end, the Monitoring Officer had extended an invitation to the Police designated SPOC to attend the next Committee to provide an update on such matters.

The Standards Committee discussed these improvements and debated further steps to address the abuse and intimidation of elected members.

Resolved – That the Standards Committee note and welcome the improvements described by the Monitoring Officer and that additional measures continue to be explored and embedded.

The Director: Governance & Communities submitted a report updating the Standards Committee on progress made on all outstanding complaints and investigations, and any relevant issues related to the Complaints Schedule.

Resolved – That the schedule be noted.

There were no urgent or additional items for consideration at the meeting.