Mark Hynes looks at the implications of the localised standards board procedures which were brought in three months ago
I am sure that a number of local standards committees across the country are licking their lips in anticipation of getting stuck into tackling issues of member misbehaviour at the ‘coal face'.
The long-awaited changes heralded by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, finally came into force on the 8 May, following the implementation of the Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008.
This means that many local standards committees, which may have felt marginalised by the primary role played by the Standards Board for England in investigating complaints, now have a real sense of purpose and worth.
Local standards committees can now deal with complaints as soon as they are formally received from a complainant, in relation to alleged breaches of the members' code of conduct, rather than the complaints being sent to the Standards Board for England to consider.
The Standards Board for England will continue to provide vital support to monitoring officers and standards committees throughout the country as they start to deal with their new powers, and the Standards Board will also take on the investigation of those cases which are deemed by local standards committees as not appropriate for local investigation.
Furthermore, the sanctions available to the local standards committees only provide for a maximum of six months disqualification, and it may be that the severity of certain member complaints warrants the early intervention of the Standards Board for England.
A number of immediate steps need to be taken by monitoring officers to ensure their council's constitutional infrastructure is put in place to enable its local standards committee to take advantage of the new rules. Helpful guidance has now been published by the SBE to assist in this task, and key actions include:
