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It is anticipated that this year's April Fools'a Day will herald the introduction of fundamental changes to the code of conduct regime. Complaints about potential breaches of the councillors' code of conduct will be dealt with by local standards committees – rather than the Standards Board for England as they currently are. The committee will need to decide whether to: refer an allegation to the monitoring officer refer them to the standards board decide no action should be taken. It is the later – the councillor will have 30 days to request a review – which should be decided in three months. On the face it, all seems simple enough. Or is it? The standards committee will need to sort out procedures for dealing with the complaint. Should the councillor be informed? When would it not be appropriate to let the member know the substance of the complaint? Should a formal agenda be issued for the meeting? Should the press and public be entitled to attend the meeting? How will the committee deal with media inquiries? How will the meeting be recorded? The CLG has issued a consultation document on these and related matters before it releases its orders and regulations, and theStandards Board for England puts forward its guidance. Standards committees will have to undertake three separate and distinct roles: the local assessment of complaints reviewing their decision conducting the hearing following an investigation. The committee will need to consider separate sub-committees for different stages of the process, since the same members can't review a decision they made. There must, therefore, be a minimum of two separate panels of members. The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 requires that the chair of the standards committee must be an independent member – and it is proposed chairs of the sub-committees are also independent. There will also need to be a parish councillor whenever a parish matter is considered. Standards committees need to address these issues urgently. As one-quarter of members must be independent – and given the requirements for chairs – at least three independent members will be required. Vacancies for independent members need to be advertised and appointments approved by the council, so the process must start now. Attracting candidates is often tough –at least one authority has used recruitment consultants to ‘head hunt' – so innovative recruitment techniques may be needed. And, assuming the new standards committee is in place before 1 April, will members be ready and prepared to undertake their new tasks? Some committees had a head start by joining a ‘local filter pilot' for the Standards Board for England last year. The pilot found committees were more likely to refer matters for investigation than the board. This raises the question, Will the system be adequately resourced? One possible solution is the use of joint standards committees. Views on this are invited in the document. The consultation also asks if the committees should have more sanctions. An increase from three to six months suspension has been proposed, but that will still leave a considerable gap between the sanctions of the committee and the adjudication panel – which can disqualify members for up to five years. A period of 20 working days is suggested for making local assessment decisions. This will be by way of guidance rather than prescription with the board, in its emerging role as a strategic regulator looking at this, together with a range of other factors, when monitoring how well the system is working locally. Standards committees will also need to make sure they are equipped to meet frequently and at short notice, if required. There are a number of other issues raised in the consultation document on which views are sought. Perhaps the most significant is how the new powers available to the Standards Board for England to suspend the functions of a standards committee might operate in practice. As ever, the devil is in the detail. The trick for everyone involved will be to ensure they are not caught unawares. The opportunity to comment ends this week, on 15 February, when the consultation period in respect of the proposals closes. Kirsty Cole is strategic director (corporate services) and monitoring officer at Newark and Sherwood DC

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WHITEHALL

Don't be an April fool

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