Uttlesford District Council has taken over responsibility for considering complaints that a councillor may have breached the Code of Conduct.

From May 8, this responsibility was transferred from the Standards Board for England to the standards committees of local authorities.

Although there are only a handful of complaints about members of the district, town or parish councils made in any year, the public needs to be made aware of this national change in procedure.

Uttlesford, like all other district or unitary councils to be given this new responsibility, will set up an assessment sub-committee of its Standards Committee if a complaint is received.

Like the Standards Committee, the sub-committee will comprise councillors and independent people and will be chaired by an independent person. Should it be looking at a complaint about a town or parish councillor, the sub-committee will include at least one town or parish councillor who is neither a member of the district council nor the same authority as the subject of the complaint.

The assessment sub-committee can only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a member. It will not deal with complaints about things that are not covered by the members’ Code of Conduct. If you make a complaint to the assessment sub-committee it must be about why you think a member has not followed the Code of Conduct.

The sub-committee’s role is to establish whether there would have been a breach of the Code of Conduct, should the facts presented to it subsequently be decided to be true. Its role does not include establishing whether those facts are true – that will be done through an investigation should the sub-committee decide one is warranted.

If the sub-committee decides there would have been a breach, it must then decide whether the breach would be serious enough to justify an investigation. If it decides there should be an investigation there are various options available for how the investigation will take place, including referring the matter to the council’s Monitoring Officer or referring it to the Standards Board for England.

After May 8, anyone who wants to complain about a member of Uttlesford District Council, or a member of a town or parish council in the district, should submit their complaint to:

Standards Committee of Uttlesford District Council c/o the Monitoring Officer, Council Offices, London Road, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11 4ER.

Visit the Standards Board’s website at www.standardsboard.gov.uk for further information.

The Code of Conduct can be found here

A letter from the Chairman of Uttlesford District Council’s Standards Committee