Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence


Memorandum by the Standards Board for England (STA 02)

  This Memorandum is submitted on behalf of The Standards Board for England in response to the invitation contained in the Committee's press notice of 15 September 2004 for written evidence by 29 October 2004 on the four points set out in the notice for a new inquiry into the role and effectiveness of The Standards Board for England.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  1.  The Standards Board for England (the Board) welcomes this opportunity to report on the progress with the code of conduct introduced by the Local Government Act 2000 ("the Act") and to reflect on the role played by the Board in administering the ethical framework.

  2.  The Board is committed to achieving the right balance between its national regulatory role and local ownership of the code. The Board's research shows wide acceptance of the code of conduct in local authorities and growing evidence of the cultural change necessary to raise and maintain ethical standards.

  3.  The judgements of the Board's ethical standards officers have been largely confirmed by the sanctions imposed on members guilty of misconduct by the Adjudication Panel for England and the local standards committees. These sanctions will continue to be publicised to reinforce the message that the Board will act against those members who breach the code and thus disrupt the good governance of local authorities.

  4.  The regulatory framework will be completed on 4 November 2004 and will enable the Board to refer some cases for local investigation and focus investigations on the more serious cases that have the most potential to harm local democracy. The Board will continue to apply the principles of proportionality, fairness and consistency in the investigation process.

  5.  The Board intends to deploy resources, as they become available, to meet the growing demand for support, training and guidance to enable authorities to establish robust and sustainable local ethical frameworks that ensure confidence in local democracy. The Board will continue its work with regulatory and other partners to deliver this aim.

  6.  The Board intends to consult on a review of the code of conduct next year to review experience and examine ways in which it can be improved or clarified.


BACKGROUND

  7.  The First Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life published in 1995 identified that: "In certain circumstances an independent body to oversee the framework within which actions are taken to monitor compliance can be an important safeguard in maintaining public confidence". The Board was established under the Act to perform such a role and was formally constituted in March 2001 as an autonomous public body, independent of the Crown, to investigate allegations that members have breached the code of conduct. In carrying out its duties the Board must have regard to the need to "promote and maintain high standards of conduct by members and co-opted members of relevant authorities In England".[1]

  8.  The Board's mission is to be the respected body responsible for promoting ethical behaviour and building confidence in local democracy. It employs some 120 people, has an annual budget of around £9 million and is sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

  9.  The model code of conduct referred to in the Act was drafted by the then Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions in consultation with a number of local government representative organisations. It was brought into force by a series of statutory instruments in November 2001 and replaced the old national code of conduct which was described by the Third Report from the Committee Into Standards in Public Life as "confusing and unsatisfactory". Today the mandatory code applies to over 100,000 members of parish councils, principal councils, fire and police authorities and the seven national park authorities.

  10. The Board has a duty to appoint ethical standards officers to investigate independently more serious allegations of misconduct. The Board's work in 2003-04 has resulted in an average of one member a week being suspended where his or her behaviour has had the potential to tarnish the reputations of everyone involved in local government. The Board also has a duty to provide authoritative guidance and support to relevant local authorities.

  11.  In its three year tenure the Board has established the resources and essential networks to discharge its statutory functions and has been encouraged by confirmation of ownership and compliance with the code in local government. Initially the Board had no reliable indication of the number of complaints likely to be made under the code and the lacuna left by a lack of powers to refer cases for local investigation and determination resulted in an incoherent framework for the proportionate operation of powers. In practise the caseload from complaints received by the Board under the code has been significantly greater than anyone had predicted. Additionally, until the new regulations come into force on 4 November 2004 the Board has operated without the powers for ethical standards officers to refer cases for local investigation which has inevitably increased the pressure on the Board's investigative resources.


THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND IN PROMOTING AND OVERSEEING THE CODE OF CONDUCT THAT SETS OUT THE RULES GOVERNING THE BEHAVIOUR OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES

  12.  The Board has used the code as a regulatory tool that can be administered in a flexible and pragmatic manner to promote member adherence to high standards of conduct. The Board is committed to providing consistent, relevant and timely advice on the code. This is achieved by delivering local presentations on key issues to elected members, independent standards committee members and officers, and undertaking research and seeking feedback from target audiences. Additionally, the Board has built networks and partnerships with local and national stakeholders.

PROMOTING THE CODE AND CREATING AWARENESS AMONG STAKEHOLDERS

  13.  The Board has, within a relatively short time, established a firm reputation for providing high quality clear and concise guidance on relevant issues, in addition to giving an effective and timely response to day-to-day enquiries. The wide range of issues covered by this guidance can be found in the bibliography at Appendix 1 to this Memorandum. The guidance is disseminated to members, monitoring officers, standards committees and other key stakeholders and made accessible to all on the Board's website at www.standardsboard.co.uk. The Board has published nine documents covering such issues as handling cases locally, understanding the code of conduct and learning from cases. Feedback and independent research has given the Board confidence that this aspect of its work is both valuable and valued by the stakeholder community. It has helped improve awareness and quality of the ethical environment in local government.

  14.  In addition to the published documents, the Board's website contains responses to frequently asked questions, case summaries, presentations from key events and an outline of partnership arrangements with other public bodies and interest groups. Two case reviews have also been published to share experience of conducting investigations, giving advice and developing policy in relation to the code of conduct.

  15.  Members and officers of the Board carry out a continuing programme of countrywide presentations to explain the provisions of the code and the work of the Board to its key stakeholders and to update them on new developments. The Board has also hosted three well-attended Annual Assemblies of Standards Committees, the most recent in September 2004. Members of standards committees, monitoring officers and local authority chief executives were given the opportunity to hear views across the local government sector and share best practice and experiences in a series of workshops.

  16.  Amongst the themes discussed at the conference was the link between high standards and excellent service delivery. In its report "Corporate Governance—Improvement and Trust in Local Public Services", the Audit Commission highlights how the governance of local authorities has improved following the Local Government Act 2000 due in part to the code of conduct. Research undertaken by the Audit Commission[2] shows the link between effective corporate governance and good service provision. The conference overwhelmingly endorsed the proposition that ethical standards are linked to excellent services.

Stakeholder perceptions—measuring the Board's success

  17.  The Board commissions a programme of research each year to monitor progress, measure stakeholder satisfaction and gauge the main ethical concerns. This programme is specifically designed to measure change in the ethical environment over time.

  18.  MORI research commissioned by the Board in 2003 into satisfaction with the Board's support and guidance to key stakeholders has found, for example, that 99% of all local monitoring officers, over 90% of standards committee members and 85% of members of principal authorities support the requirement for members to sign the code of conduct. The code of conduct is now widely considered to be essential and has received broad support from all tiers of local government. The research also found that 80% of respondents from principal authorities and 70% of respondents from the parish sector believe that maintaining high standards in local government is one of the most important issues facing local government.

  19.  MORI also reported that the guidance produced by the Board is often cited as one of the most positive aspects of the Board's work. Some 69% of respondents felt that the Board had been successful in keeping them personally informed and that the Board had successfully defined standards of behaviour for members. The survey also provided evidence of the usefulness of the range of publications produced by the Board. Town and parish councils have the least resources to deal with information and communications, and the dissemination of materials could take several weeks in some authorities. The Board is working with these authorities to identify ways of ensuring quicker and easier access to the relevant information.

  20.  The Board takes encouragement from these findings that the code has become an accepted part of the ethical framework for maintaining high standards in local government and that there is a high level of satisfaction among stakeholders in the guidance and support provided by the Board.

  21.  There is evidence that public awareness is increasing about the role of the Board and the complaints process, with 61% of allegations to the Board now coming from the general public. Conversely, this may be seen as a measure of the task ahead in building public confidence in local democracy.

Review of the Code of Conduct

  22.  The Board was among a wide range of bodies including 50 local authorities, standards committees and others that gave evidence to the Committee on Standards in Public Life's Tenth Inquiry "Getting the Balance Right: Implementing Standards of Conduct in Public Life" chaired by Sir Alistair Graham. Sir Alistair gave a keynote address to delegates at the Board's conference in September 2004 in which he indicated that there was broad support for:

    —  an overarching statutory ethical standards framework;

    —  a model code of conduct applicable to all tiers of local government; and

    —  a national investigative and guidance body.

  23.  In giving evidence to the Committee the Board indicated the need for a review of the code and now intends to conduct a full public consultation exercise on a review of the code in the New Year, on the invitation of the Minister of Local and Regional Government at the Board's Annual Assembly in September 2004. The Board will take the opportunity to review the effectiveness of the code and see if there are ways in which it could be improved or clarified, with a view to making recommendations for revisions to the Minister in 2005.

THE ROLE OF THE STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND IN ENSURING LOCAL AUTHORITIES ADHERE TO A CODE OF CONDUCT AND ITS ABILITY TO ASSESS ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT IN A TIMELY AND FAIR WAY

  24.  The main statutory function of the Board is to investigate complaints about alleged breaches of the code of conduct where appropriate. A total of 63 referral, investigations and legal staff work directly on cases and have an average of over seven years each of experience in local government and/or regulatory bodies.

Local determinations and investigations—Section 66 Regulations

  25.  The delay in introducing regulations for handling cases at a local level meant that the Board initially had to deal with all investigations against members with insufficient resources to meet the demand. Ethical standards officers were overloaded with cases and inundated with less significant complaints without the power to refer matters locally. Although standards committees had been established in August 2001 their powers did not extend to the determination of cases referred by ethical standards officers until June 2003. Until that time ethical standards officers had little option but to decide "no further action" in the case of more minor breaches of the code. The Board has since been given additional resources and has been able to direct more of its resources towards dealing with investigations and improving the throughput of cases, conscious of the need to build stakeholder confidence in the new ethical framework.



  26.  The Board remains fully committed to the principle that local issues should be dealt with at a local level wherever possible. Once the second set of regulations are enacted, ethical standards officers will be able to refer appropriate cases for local investigation and hearings. The Board aims to support and make its expertise available to monitoring officers and standards committees to enable the Board to concentrate its investigative resources on the more serious cases and to help maintain confidence in the process by ensuring consistency of treatment between those cases investigated locally and those undertaken centrally.

Investigation referral criteria

  27.  The Board has a duty to consider all allegations received about members' conduct, but exercises its discretion to refer only the more serious allegations for investigation. The referral criteria attached at Appendix 2 to this Memorandum are applied to all complaints received; these have been further strengthened to discourage trivial, malicious or tit for tat complaints, and reject allegations made solely for political point-scoring. As a result, referrals for investigation have fallen from 45% in 2002-03 and 34% in 2003-04, to a current average, of 27% of the total number of complaints received during this financial year.

  28.  As a planning assumption, the Board expects to be referring around 30% of the 300 complaints received each month to be investigated, either centrally or at a local level. The average time taken from receipt of a complaint to referral for investigation is now 12 days. Active steps are being taken to reduce this time yet further to around 10 days.

Investigations into allegations of misconduct

  29.  It was essential as the Board set about its task that the investigation process was carefully tested so as to ensure absolute fairness and integrity was exercised throughout the whole process. Inevitably, at the commencement, this was a painstaking process which could only be speeded up as more experience was gained. It was important to the Board that this process should be able to stand the test of external scrutiny including judicial review particularly as it was dealing with the integrity and good name of politically active members of the community who, above all, needed to have confidence in this process.

  30.  The Board remains conscious of the need to ensure confidence in the investigations process to maintain effectiveness. Investigations will continue to be proportional and focused only on those issues that could potentially- damage local government if not addressed.

Length of investigation

  31.  Between 1 April 2002 and 31 July 2004 ethical standards officers conducted 1,465 investigations. During the same period the Board received 68 written complaints regarding the conduct of the investigations. A small-scale survey in 2003 indicated that over half of those members investigated were satisfied with the investigation process.

  32.  Of all the cases referred to ethical standards officers by The Standards Board for England over 40% of investigations are now completed within six months.

  33.  However, the Board continues to streamline its case handling processes, recognising the need to balance greater speed with fairness to all parties. A case weighting system ensures greater proportionality in handling and resourcing allegations; an electronic case management system is operated; and additional investigators have been recruited. The Board aims to complete 90% of cases referred for investigation within six months.

  34.  The Board has reallocated resource and aims to clear by 31 March 2005 the 400 oldest cases that built up when the number of allegations exceeded the initial planned numbers. Good progress is being made with 25% now cleared and all others will have been allocated for investigation at the end of November 2004. This has been helped by additional resources granted by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and the use of external legal firms.

  35.  New complaints received that the Board refers for investigation are currently being allocated immediately to an investigator.

Enforcing the Code of Conduct

  36.  The Board has challenged and highlighted behaviour that has the potential to damage confidence in local democracy by publicising the significant sanctions imposed on members of local authorities by local standards committees and the Adjudication Panel for England.

The Adjudication Panel for England

  37.  The Adjudication Panel for England is a separate independent judicial tribunal which was established by Part III, Chapter IV of the Local Government Act 2000 to hear and adjudicate on matters concerning the conduct of local authority members. The Adjudication Panel for England also considers appeals pursuant to Part 3(9) of the The Local Authorities (Code of Conduct)(Local Determination) Regulations 2003. Ethical standards officers refer cases to The Adjudication Panel for England when they believe that a member's misconduct is serious enough to warrant stronger penalties than the sanctions available to the local standards committees. The Panel has been hearing cases since 16 January 2003 and has largely confirmed the judgement of the ethical standard officers by determining that there has been a failure to comply with the code and imposed sanctions in nearly all cases referred to it.

Cases heard by Adjudication Panel for England
No of cases Jan 2003 to Oct 2004 Cases in which sanctions were imposed Cases in which member was disqualified for one year or more
189 182 154



Standards committee determinations

  38.  Whenever possible the decision to refer cases to standards committees is based on the principle that the issue should be dealt with locally with the appropriate sanctions.

  39.  The first local standards committee hearing took place on 1 September 2003 and 68 hearings had been held by the end of August 2004. The delay in introducing regulations meant that ethical standards officers had to decide to take no further action in a number of cases because of the lack of available sanctions. In 91% of cases heard locally in the year to 31 March 2004, the committee has ruled there has been a breach of the code of conduct. The Board believes that this is a further confirmation of the ethical standards officers' judgement. The Board welcomes the revised sanctions for standards committees introduced in the new regulations for local investigations.

  40.  Consideration is also being given to the potential benefits of conciliation services to resolve local issues. The Board has hitherto been hampered by the constraints of the Act in taking advantage of the growing area of dispute resolution. However, a provision included in the new local investigation regulations gives ethical standards officers the power to direct the monitoring officer to deal with a case other than by investigation. Subject to the resources available locally this may assist in a range of cases. The Board is seeking actively to identify resources to promote the availability of alternatives in its corporate plan currently under development.

Following-up and learning from investigations and tribunal decisions

  41.  The Board is introducing processes and procedures to learn from the investigations, adjudications and determinations. With a more streamlined investigation process and the ability to refer allegations for investigation at the local level, the Board will allocate more time and effort to gathering feedback and analysing information that identifies a need for guidance or training in particular areas. The intention will be to identify and address any trends at an early stage and direct more effort into informing and supporting the cultural change required to establish and sustain a robust local ethical framework.


THE STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND'S RELATIONSHIPS WITH:

    (a)  other regulatory organisations that support the ethical framework set out in the Local Government Act 2000;

  42.  The Board works with other regulatory organisations—including the Audit Commission, individual police forces, the Commission for Local Administration in England and the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate—to support the ethical framework set out in the Local Government Act 2000. Establishing good, co-operative relationships between regulators is essential to that framework. Memoranda and protocols set out the basis for co-operation between the Board and other regulators to identify areas of overlapping jurisdiction and ensure that complaints are efficiently dealt with in the way most appropriate for both the complainant and local authorities.

  43.  The Board is leading a joint steering committee with the Audit Commission, the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), the Commission for Local Administration in England and the ODPM, to help the integration of high ethical standards into the culture of local government. The steering committee promotes joint working between the parties, shares expertise and oversees projects that are likely to result in improved ethical frameworks, underpin transparent decision-making, and lead to better public services and greater public confidence in local democracy. Areas of joint working include:

    —  input into the new Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) focusing on how effectively elected members and officers are working in the ethical framework; and

    —  ethical aspects of the Corporate Governance Inspection Methodology for local authorities that receive a weak or poor rating under the CPA; and the Local Government Diagnostic jointly badged with the Audit Commission as a risk management tool with the aim of promoting good practice; and complemented by the Capacity Building Tool—for principal authorities—jointly developed by the IDeA to enable local self-assessments of ethical standards, focusing on conduct and behaviour funded by the ODPM through the Board.

  44.  The Board believes that such partnerships are vital to promote the principles of the code and facilitate a culture in which good services and good conduct go hand in hand.

    (b)  central government;

  45.  The Board believes that the ODPM recognises that the problem the Board is tackling is a continuing issue of public concern and values the efforts made to establish itself as "a credible and respected body at the heart of the ethical framework"[3]. The Board's 2004 Annual Assembly was attended by the Right Honourable Nick Raynsford MP, Minister of State for Local and Regional Government who endorsed the progress made by the Board and reflected the Board's excellent relationship with the ODPM.

    (c)  local government stakeholders.

  46.  The Board has established positive relationships with its partners in local government. On a day-to-day basis, the Board provides guidance on the code of conduct to members, monitoring officers, parish clerks and the general public. The Board publishes a monthly bulletin for monitoring officers and a regular newsletter for standards committees and plans to produce a newsletter shortly for chief executives and leaders as part of its commitment to encourage and support the development of ethical leadership within authorities. The Board believes that local leadership is essential in embedding the concept of high standards at the local level. It is looking to engage more closely with key authority leaders to explore how local government can move beyond mere compliance with the code of conduct to embed ethical behaviour as a normative democratic model.

Parish Councils

  47.  The Board has engaged with parish councils as the most local level of democratic accountability. As the national regulatory body with responsibility for standards of conduct in parish councils, the Board believes that it is in a unique position to promote ethical standards and temper excesses of behaviour in some 8,500 parish councils. The Board presently publishes guidance on the code of conduct, gives presentations and issues a quarterly parish newsletter to help parish councils to comply with the code. The Board is also examining with local government representative bodies and the ODPM ways to build capacity to promote ethical standards in dysfunctional parish and town councils.

Local Government Groups and Associations

  48.  The Board has undertaken a series of countrywide presentations to County Associations of Local Councils and holds regular round table meetings with the National Association of Local Councils (NALC). The Board also meets regularly with the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC) and other representatives of the parish sector, and is currently reviewing its findings on research undertaken into the Needs of County Associations under the code of conduct.

  49.  The Board meets regularly with the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors (ACSeS) and with the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE), and has held events at both organisations' annual conferences. The Board has also spoken at all three major party conferences and has developed a good working relationship with The Local Government Association.




THE ROLE OF THE STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND IN SUPPORTING THE ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF STANDARDS COMMITTEES AT A LOCAL LEVEL

  50.  Standards committees must be established by relevant local authorities under the Act. Regulations came into force in August 2001 governing the size and membership of these committees and how they should run their business. They have five statutory functions:

    —  to give the authority advice on adopting the local code of conduct to monitor the effectiveness of the code;

    —  to train members on the code, or arrange for such training; and

    —  to promote and maintain high standards of conduct for members; and help members to follow the code of conduct.

Independent members

  51.  Each standards committee must include at least one independent member from outside the authority and independent members should constitute at least 25% of the committee membership. The Board has also encouraged standards committees to be chaired by an independent member to help reinforce the principle of independent scrutiny and public trust; encouragingly, the Board has evidence to show that independent chairs seem to be the norm rather than the exception. The Board believes it is also important to have elected members on the standards committee to ensure local government experience and to embed the committee as an important part of the structure of the local authority.

  52.  The Board has encouraged and facilitated the formation of independent members' regional forums. Eight such forums presently meet to share experiences and best practice. The Board intends to assist these forums by providing speakers and advising on development needs to increase awareness of their role. The Board is particularly concerned to identify and offer support to those independent members who may feel isolated within their authority because of the lack of developed support structures.

The Board's supporting role

  53.  The Board has actively supported the development of standards committees through the sharing of best practice and provision of guidance, encouraging standards committees to take a more proactive role to augment their statutory functions. Some standards committees have further defined their role to include internal and external audit, developing protocols on member-officer relations and dealing with investigations by the Local Government Ombudsman.

  54.  In many cases standards committees have not been sufficiently active, partly owing to the delay in securing the regulations for local investigations. As a result, standards of skills and experience will vary between one committee and another. In addition, elected members may change and the terms of office of independent members vary considerably. The Board is seeking to obtain further quantitative information on these areas, so that it may develop advice to help committees with the effective discharge of their duties.

  55.  A high level of participation in the Board's Annual Assembly of Standards Committees provides a further opportunity for networking among standards committees and other members of the local authority community. Feedback from the 2004 Assembly indicates that delegates benefited significantly from their contributions to the workshops and presentations by keynote speakers. Measured feedback from delegates at the Board's 2004 Assembly showed a 98% overall satisfaction rating with the event.

Local investigations and determinations

  56.  Standards committees already conduct local determination hearings on referral from ethical standards officers, and have received extensive support from the Board to help them prepare and manage the hearings in a manner conducive to justice, fairness and the public interest.

  57.  The capacity of some monitoring officers and standards committees to take on the significant workload that will accompany local investigations is a cause for concern. A survey by The University of Teeside found that 25% of monitoring officers considered themselves insufficiently resourced or supported to undertake the full extent of their role under the Act. Local authorities have a duty to review resources and support to ensure that monitoring officers can discharge their advisory, training and investigation roles and give proper support to the standards committees in their work; failure to achieve this is likely to harm public confidence in the process of local investigations. The Board will have a pivotal role in supporting standards committees and monitoring officers in connection will local investigations under the new regulations.

CONCLUSION

  58.  The Board believes that the independent scrutiny of the behaviour of members of local authorities contributes to public confidence in local democracy. The Board is now at a critical stage of its development. The code is embedded in local government and has been shown to be an effective tool for dealing with issues of conduct. The Board in moving forward needs to ensure that case handling remains its primary focus; that this is. properly resourced and that the current streamlining of processes delivers the benefits expected.

  59.  The new regulations operative from November 2004 will mean the whole machinery is finally in place. The Board needs to retain sufficient organisational flexibility to manage future uncertainties and risks. Caseloads may rise through latent public demand or new functions (such as licensing) and not all authorities may be able or resourced to handle the cases which could be allocated to them. The Board remains committed to supporting local standards committees and monitoring officers in handling appropriate cases at the local level, resulting in robust investigations and just outcomes.

APPENDIX 1

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GUIDANCE PUBLISHED BY THE STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND

  1.  Guide to Part III of the Local Government Act 2000—May 2002

  2.  Guidance on Standards Committees—May 2002

  3.  How do I register and declare interests, and register gifts and hospitality—May 2003

  4.  Standards Committee Determinations—July 2003

  5.  How to make a complaint—November 2003

  6.  The Case Review Volume One—2003

  7.  Lobby groups, dual—hatted members and the Code of Conduct—September 2004

  8.  The Case Review Number two—2004

  9.  Local Investigations—Guidance for Monitoring Officers—November 2004

APPENDIX 2

REFERRAL CRITERIA FOR COMPLAINTS MADE TO THE STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND

  The Standards Board for England focuses only on allegations it believes have the potential to damage the public's confidence in local democracy. People who make a complaint in writing under the code of conduct are notified of the Board's decision as whether or not a case is to be referred for investigation.

A matter will be referred for investigation if the Board believes it meets one of the following criteria:

    —  it is serious enough, if proven, to justify the range of sanctions available to The Adjudication Panel for England or local standards committee; and

    —  it is part of a continuing pattern of less serious misconduct which is unreasonably disrupting the business of the authority and there is no other avenue left to deal with it short of investigation.

  A complaint is unlikely to be referred for investigation if it falls into any of the following categories:

    —  it is believed to be malicious, relatively minor, or tit-for-tat;

    —  the same, or substantially similar, complaint has already been the subject of an investigation or inquiry and there is nothing further to be gained by seeking the sanctions available to The Adjudication Panel for England or the local standards committee;

    —  the complaint concerns acts carried out in the member's private life which are unlikely to affect his or her fitness for public office;

    —  it appears that the grievance is really about dissatisfaction with a council decision; and

    —  there is insufficient information currently available to justify a decision to refer the matter for investigation.

APPEALS AGAINST THE BOARD'S DECISION

  If a complaint is turned down for investigation the person who made the complaint can request a review of the decision by writing to the chief executive of The Standards Board for England within four weeks of the referral decision.

APPENDIX 3

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 2003-04

  We measure our performance against a number of key performance indicators (KPIs). A summary of the results for the year 2003-04 is presented below.
KPITarget AchievedComments
Percentage of correspondence receiving an initial response within five working days of receipt. Includes faxes and e-mails but excludes case related correspondence. 90%66%Our practice is to send substantive responses to enquiries, rather than an initial response. An increase in the number and complexity of enquiries has increased turn-around times. Target to be reviewed in the next financial year.
Percentage of telephone enquiries (other than case related enquiries) to receive a substantive response within two working days. 90%99%
Percentage of allegations acknowledged within two working days. 90%59%Affected by an increasing number of allegations, and by staff turnover. Measurements have been put in place to improve performance in this area.
Percentage of allegations dealt with within 10 working days. 90%  4%Affected by a number of factors, including inability to delegate decisions from Board until November, embedding of a new case management system and staff turnover. Target to be reviewed in the next financial year.
Percentage of complainants to be contacted by an investigator, either by letter or telephone, within 10 working days of receipt of referral. 95%50%Procedural changes and additional future resources will help to improve performance against this target. Target to be reviewed in the next financial year.
Percentage of cases referred for investigation to be completed within four months. 40%15%Procedural changes and additional future resources will help to improve performance against this target. 59% of all allegations received by the Board were completed within six months. This and the following KPI only apply to allegations referred for investigation.
Percentage of cases referred for investigation to be completed within six months. 90%38%Procedural changes and additional future resources will help to improve performance against this target.
Percentage of invoices paid within terms. 90%94%
Average sickness absence rate.< 3.5% 1.56%
Percentage of staff to be drawn from ethnic minorities. 7.2%11.9%
Percentage of councillors rating guidance as satisfactory or above (research project). 65%40%Achievement measured by MORI research: Satisfaction with The Standards Board's Support and Guidance to Key Stakeholders (2004). Just 18% of respondents were dissatisfied, 27% neither satisfied or dissatisfied, 14% didn't know and 1% not stated.
Percentage of complainants, and members complained against to be satisfied with the process by which the case was handled (research project). 35%59%Figures from in-house telephone survey on a selected sample of completed cases.


APPENDIX 4

FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND THE COST OF INVESTIGATIONS (BUDGET PROJECTIONS 2004-05)
Cost centreBudget £000's £000's
Referrals Unit570
Investigations4,604
The Adjudication Panel for England583
Policy and Guidance927
Legal Services515
Communications698
Corporate Management1,430
TOTAL9,327
Projections based on budget
Allegations received:3,800
Allegations referred:1,140
Total cost per allegation received:£2,455
Referrals Unit cost per allegation received: £213
Investigation cost per referred case:£5,223





1   Section 57(4), Part III, Chapter II of the Local Government Act 2000. Back

2   Audit Commission report on Corporate Governance 2003-governance contributes to the quality of public services. Back

3   Paragraph 23 of the Memorandum by the ODPM to The Tenth Committee on Standards in Public Life 2004. Back


 
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