Committee on Standards in Public Life: Local government ethical standards: report
R19-22
Response position Partially accepted
Published January 2019
Response position and delivery status are recorded separately. Acceptance does not establish implementation.
Recommendation (the Committee's words)
The Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 should be amended to provide that disciplinary protections for statutory officers extend to all disciplinary action, not just dismissal.
From: Committee on Standards in Public Life, Local government ethical standards: report, January 2019
Government response
Government response (the government's words)
The 3 statutory officers in local government are the Monitoring Officer, the Head of Paid Service (Chief Executive) and the Chief Finance Officer (often referred to as the Section 151 Officer).
Under the current disciplinary arrangements for statutory officers, any decision to dismiss a statutory officer must be taken by full council, following a hearing by a panel that must include at least 2 Independent Persons. The Committee consider that the disciplinary protections for statutory officers should be enhanced, by extending disciplinary protections to all disciplinary actions (such as suspension or formal warnings), not just dismissal.
The government agrees in principle with this recommendation and recognises this will be pertinent to Monitoring Officers who may not necessarily be afforded the same seniority in the organisational hierarchy of a local authority as the 2 other statutory officers (Head of Paid Service and the Section 151 Officer), and who may be subject to personal pressures when conducting high profile breach of conduct investigations.
The government will engage with sector representative bodies of all tiers of local government to seek views on amending the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England)(Amendment) Regulations to provide disciplinary protections for statutory officers.
Under the current disciplinary arrangements for statutory officers, any decision to dismiss a statutory officer must be taken by full council, following a hearing by a panel that must include at least 2 Independent Persons. The Committee consider that the disciplinary protections for statutory officers should be enhanced, by extending disciplinary protections to all disciplinary actions (such as suspension or formal warnings), not just dismissal.
The government agrees in principle with this recommendation and recognises this will be pertinent to Monitoring Officers who may not necessarily be afforded the same seniority in the organisational hierarchy of a local authority as the 2 other statutory officers (Head of Paid Service and the Section 151 Officer), and who may be subject to personal pressures when conducting high profile breach of conduct investigations.
The government will engage with sector representative bodies of all tiers of local government to seek views on amending the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England)(Amendment) Regulations to provide disciplinary protections for statutory officers.
From: HM Government. Source document ↗