Agenda item

The Head of the Chief Executives Office presented the Quarterly Update Report in the Monitoring Officers absence.  The report provided a quarterly update to the Standards Committee regarding the current position concerning Code of Conduct complaints, and to identify any trends or patterns in regard to the type of complaints received.

Members heard that there had been 6 complaints received in 2026 of the 6, 3 were ongoing, 2 had been rejected by the Monitoring Office in consultation with the Independent Person and 1 had been resolved informally.  It was noted that there had been no Member-on-Member complaints in this current year. 

Members were advised that there had been 13 complaints concluded since the report to the committee of 19 January 2026.  Of the 13 complaints closed, 10 were from 2025, 3 of the complaints which had previously been stayed awaiting information from external bodies had been concluded by way of No Further Action by the Monitoring Officer, further to consultation with the Independent Person, 6 complaints were rejected by the Monitoring Officer, further to consultation with the Independent Person, 1 complaint was accepted and informal advice and guidance given by the Monitoring Officer further to consultation with the Independent Person.

Of the 3 complaints concluded from 2026, 2 were rejected by the Monitoring Officer, further to consultation with the Independent Person and 1 was accepted and informal advice and guidance given by the Monitoring Officer further to consultation with the Independent Person.

Members were informed that of the 7 ongoing complaints, 4 complaints for 2025 were subject to investigation, 2 were internal investigations and 2 are external investigations.  The Monitoring Officer and Independent Person had considered 1 complaint, a decision had been made on whether to accept or reject and/or the next steps.  This decision was to be communicated to the Subject Member and Complainant.

Members were advised that 2 complaints received at the end of March were with the Monitoring and Independent Person for consideration on whether to accept or reject and/or next steps.

It was advised that the theme of complaints would continue to be monitored.  A Member queried if any new themes had emerged, the Head of the Chief Executives Department was not aware of any new themes but confirmed that previous themes tended to be around the use of social media. 

A discussion took place around the use of social media a Member suggested that the Monitoring Officer and officers who dealt with complaints should attend the same training as Members.  Another Member commented that Councillors social media should concentrate on ward issues and should not be used to have a go at other Members, past complaints had been when Members had interfered and passed comment on issues that were not in their own ward.  Members discussed if a Member lived in that particular ward should they be able to pass comment and it was agreed that as resident they would.  It was felt that this issue should be included in future social media training.

The Standards Committee agreed:

•         To note the content of the report