Agenda item

The Committee were invited to consider making any amendments to the Complaint documentation, Assessment Procedure and Criteria and Investigation, Pre-hearing and Hearing procedures in the light of experience following the implementation of the regime for complaints to be made locally.  The Monitoring Officer advised of some suggested amendments.  It was recommended that the Assessment/Review Sub-Committee should where possible comprise an Independent Member, a City Councillor and a Parish Councillor, as it was recognised that using two Independent Members at this stage may reduce the pool of Independent Members available should the matter proceed to a hearing.  It was recommended also that the hearing procedure should be amended to allow in more complex cases for a two stage procedure, whereby, the Sub-Committee would first hear evidence and make findings of fact, and then hear representations as to whether on those facts, there had been a failure to comply with the Code of Conduct and make a finding on that issue.

Resolved:

That the amendments to the Assessment Procedure and the Hearing Procedure be approved.