The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services presented a report apprising the Committee of the new duties under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 in relation to leaders of political groups taking steps to promote and maintain high standards of conduct of their members.

The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services explained that Group Leaders were required to report compliance with their duty to the Standards Committee. Group Leaders should also report any serious concerns about members’ behaviour which had not been remedied by informal actions, in line with the requirement in the Code for councillors to report breaches. It was recommended that the Council’s political Group Leaders and the Standards Committee agree on the form and frequency of a report from each Group Leader to the Committee. The Committee should then consider each report and provide feedback to the Group Leaders. The Chair of the Standards Committee had therefore invited the three Group Leaders to attend the Committee meeting for this item.

The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services added that training on the new duties had been arranged for the Committee and Group Leaders prior to the meeting on 30th September 2022, by an external facilitator.

The Group Leaders and the Committee discussed and agreed a way forward for reporting to Standards Committee.

RESOLVED:   Standards Committee noted the report and agreed that:

                     •    The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services to prepare a joint statement from the 3 Group Leaders to promote the new duties to be circulated to the Group Leaders for approval before being circulated to all Members together with the training slides from the Leadership in Standards Training. 

                     •    A standardised template for a report to be prepared to be submitted to Standards Committee every 6 months from each individual Group. Each report to include details of attendance at mandatory training sessions, complaints and other relevant information. 

                      •   The reports to be shared with the Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services before being submitted to Standards Committee. The individual Group Leaders to attend Standards Committee when the reports were being considered.