Agenda item

Recruitment of Independent Person

Minutes:

The Director of Governance and Commissioning introduced the report which required Members to agree the process for the appointment of an Independent Person to the Authority.

 

He informed Members that Section 28(7) of the Localism Act 2011 placed a duty on the Fire Authority to appoint at least one Independent Person to assist the Authority in handling complaints about breaches of the Members’ Code of Conduct.  The act required the Authority to advertise and secure applications for this role. 

 

Two Independent Persons were initially appointed on 12th December 2012 for a three year term following a recruitment process which was overseen by the Committee.  The appointments were extended until December 2018 by the Authority on 16th December 2015.  Since the extension was agreed, Independent Person David Sayer had stepped down from his appointment leaving the Authority with only one Independent Person.  The Director of Governance and Commissioning informed Members that, although there was no statutory requirement to have two Independent Persons, it was recommended that a second individual be appointed to ensure that an Independent Person was still available should one step down.

 

An application pack was attached as Appendix 1 to the report for Members to review.  A Member referred the Committee to Annex 4 within Appendix 1 – ‘Complaints about a Breach of the Members’ Code of Conduct – Procedure for Handling Complaints’.  He queried whether elements of the procedure should be reviewed, such as: it falling to the Monitoring Officer’s discretion as to whether details of a complaint should be disclosed to the Member who is the subject of the complaint; the outcome of the complaint normally being determined purely on the written documentation; and there currently being no facility for an appeal.  Members discussed the procedure further and highlighted the importance of ensuring transparency throughout the process.

 

The Director of Governance and Commissioning informed Members that there was currently no rush to recruit an Independent Person and it was agreed that a workshop should be arranged to further discuss potential amendments to the application pack (in particular the procedure for handling complaints) before finalising the recruitment process.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

[1]    a workshop be arranged to further discuss the application pack, in particular Annex 4 – Complaints about a Breach of the Members’ Code of Conduct, before finalising the  recruitment of an Independent Person.

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