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Standards Committee 7 March 2008
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority
Meeting of the Standards Committee held on
7 March 2008 at Fire Service Headquarters, Birkenshaw,
Present: Councillors P Booth (as substitute for Councillor G Wilkinson), J Cole and A McKenna
P E J Marshall (in the chair)
Apologies: Councillor G Wilkinson and Lynn Knowles
20 Minutes of the Last Meeting
Resolved
That the Minutes of the Committee at a meeting held on 9 November 2007 be signed by the Chair as a correct record.
21 Urgent Items
None.
22 Admission of the Public
The Committee determined that there were no items which should be considered in the absence of the public.
23 Declarations of Interest
No disclosures of interest in matters under consideration were made.
24 Minutes of Independent Members' Regional Network Forum
Resolved
That the Minutes of a meeting of the Independent Members’ Regional Network Forum at a meeting held on 1 October 2007 be noted.
25 Standards Board for England - Publications
Consideration was given to a report of the Director of Corporate Resources and Monitoring Officer which advised Members of the publications which had
been issued by the Standards Board for England since the date of the last meeting.
The following publications were attached to the report for Members’
consideration;
• Bulletins 36 – 37
Members gave specific attention to the following issues raised within the
bulletins;
• new regulations - new role and size of Standards Committees
• guidance on the local framework (not yet available)
• recruitment of independent members (packs available through ACseS)
• abolition of the office of independent adjudicator
It was reported that consideration was being given within the region to the creation a pool of independent members who could be called upon to consider complaints within individual authorities.
Resolved
(i) That the content of the publications be noted; and
(ii) That an additional meeting of the Committee be held in May 2008 to
consider the processes for local resolution of Code of Conduct complaints.
26 Allegations considered by the Standards Board for England
Members considered a report of the Director of Corporate Resources and
Monitoring Officer which advised of the allegations considered by the
Standards Board for England from April 2007.
Resolved
That the report be noted.
27 Adjudication Panel – Case Summaries
Members considered a sample of case studies submitted for decision to the
Adjudication Panel for England.
Resolved
That the report be noted.
28 Complaints and Compliments
The Director of Corporate Resources submitted a report which advised of the outcome of the annual review of compliments, complaints and staff suggestions.
Members were advised that all 43 complaints against the Service had been
resolved at Stage 1, 17 of which had been upheld.
Resolved
That the report be noted.
29 Standards Committee Membership – Proposals to Amend
The Director of Corporate Resources and Monitoring Officers submitted a report which invited consideration of a recommendation from the Standards Board for England (SBE) that each Standards Committee should have a minimum of three independent members to facilitate the local assessment of Code of Conduct complaints in accordance with the proposed 3-stage process.
Recommended
That the Authority be recommended to increase the size of the Standards
Committee to 3 independent members and 6 elected members.
30 Date of Next Meeting
Resolved
(i) That the next meeting of the Standards Committee be convened on a
date to be agreed in May with the specific purpose of considering the
toolkit documents, templates and processes for the local assessment of
Code of Conduct complaints; and
(ii) That Member training in the new processes be organised for July 2008.
Chair
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