Decision details

10.1   The Committee received a report by the Director of Law and Assurance (copy appended to the signed minutes).

10.2     The report was introduced by the Director of Law and Assurance, who advised that the Model Code of Conduct from the Local Government Association had been used as the basis for the draft Code of Conduct, with some minor changes to remove information not relevant to the County Council and to keep bespoke guidance from the existing Code of Conduct which was not found in the model text.

10.3     The Committee supported the proposed text of the draft Code of Conduct, acknowledging that the main benefit of changing to this new version was to provide consistency to the public with other local councils’ codes of conduct.

10.4     Members commented that the changes between the first and second person could be confusing to readers, so asked for the information in the second person, which is mostly guidance to the member, should appear in an alternative format in the final draft.

10.5     Members asked that some other minor reformatting be carried out and highlighted that in the first paragraph of section 4, a clearer reference to co-opted members when ceasing their role was needed and that the guidance at the end of paragraph 8.4 needed expanding to reflect the old Code’s specific wording against the intimidation of witnesses.

10.6     Resolved – That subject to the changes requested in minutes 10.4 and 10.5, that the draft Code of Conduct be endorsed for submission to the County Council for approval in December 2022.