Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer advised the Committee that the current procedures and documentation for dealing with the new regime for Code of Conduct complaints had been approved in May and June 2008. Having been in place for a year it seemed appropriate for the Committee to review the process.

The Monitoring Officer therefore attached to her report the following documents:

            Complaint Form;

            Guidance for Complainants;

            Assessment Procedure and Criteria;

            Investigation procedure;

            Pre-hearing Procedure (including Forms A-D); and

            Hearing Procedure.

Slight amendments had been made to the documentation, during the year, with the agreement of the Committee, following experience of the use of some of documents such as the complaint form. An amendment to the Assessment Criteria had been made earlier at this meeting, Minute 7 (2) refers.

Resolved:

1)                  That a statement be included in the introduction of the complaints form indicating that guidance on completing the form was attached.

2)                  That the section on “other action” in the guidance be amended to emphasise that a referral for “other action” is not a finding of breach of the Code of Conduct.

3)                  That the Monitoring Officer be requested to consider an amendment to B1 of the Assessment Criteria, removing the reference to “cost”, and to report back to a future meeting of the Committee.

4)                  That the complaints documentation and procedure be kept under review from time to time.