08 May 2008
Standards Board welcomes local assessment
The Standards Board for England welcomes the new locally based system for dealing with complaints about local authority members’ conduct, which comes into force today (Thursday 8 May 2008). Authorities will now be responsible for receiving complaints about the conduct of elected members and deciding whether to refer them for investigation.
The Standards Board has a new regulatory role and will provide advice, support and guidance to help local standards committees in undertaking their new roles. It will also monitor authorities’ performance in carrying out their new functions in order to maintain consistently high standards across England.
Comprehensive guidance for local authorities on the new regulatory framework, including a local assessment toolkit to help authorities when receiving and assessing complaints, is available from the Standards Board for England website, www.standardsboard.gov.uk. The online toolkit provides template documents, forms and process maps designed to be used in the local assessment process. Local authorities can download the documents and adapt them to suit their needs.
Sir Anthony Holland, chair of the Standards Board, said:
“The Standards Board provides the national, independent oversight necessary to secure public confidence in a locally based system of ethical standards complaints. Although most complaints will continue to be investigated by authorities themselves, we will still investigate some complaints if it is inappropriate for the authority’s monitoring officer to carry out the investigation themselves.
“If you want to make a complaint about the conduct of a councillor, you must write to the standards committee of the council concerned. If your complaint is about a parish or town councillor, you should send it to your district or unitary authority - in other words, the council that collects your council tax.”Ends.
For media enquiries, contact the press office on 0161 817 5400 or email press.enquiries@standardsboard.gov.uk.
Notes for editors
Local assessment of new complaints about members’ potential breaches of the Code of Conduct was introduced by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. The act was passed in October 2007 and gives the Standards Board for England a new regulatory role.
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