Issue - meetings

The above Regulations require changes to be made to the statutory dismissal procedures for all Heads of Paid Service, Monitoring Officers and Section 151 (Chief Finance) Officers (the Protected Officers).

In order to give context to these changes the Local Government Association Advisory Bulletin explaining the new procedures is attached in full at Appendix. Changes to our own Standing Orders/Constitution are being led by Human Resources – so it is the impact from a Standards Committee perspective which is the focus of this report. Pages 6-9 of the LGA Bulletin are of particular relevance. In essence it sets out the new process which allows a Full Council vote in order to dismiss a Protected Officer provided they have taken account of certain matters.  For the Standards Committee purposes, one such matters is ‘any advice, views or recommendations of a panel.’

That Panel must comprise of at least two Independent Persons (IPs) appointed under Section 28(7) of the Localism Act 2011 i.e. the Independent Persons of the Standards Committee. In order to implement this aspect of the Regulations the current IPs will all be invited to become members of the Panel. If more than two accept then the Council will decide whether to appoint all, but in any event must appoint two. If fewer than two accept the invitation then IPs from other Authorities may be invited. The appointments will be made in the order prescribed and set out at page 9 of the LGA Bulletin:

• IPs appointed by the Council who are electors in the EFDC area
• IPs appointed by the Council.
• Finally IPs from another Authority.

Prior to the formal invitations being made, it was thought appropriate to draw these matters to the attention of the Standards Committee – in particular the IPs appointed to it by Council.

The Monitoring Officer gave a report on the impact of the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015, which required changes to be made to the statutory dismissal procedures for all Heads of Paid Service, Monitoring Officers and Section 151 (Chief Finance) Officers, known as the Protected Officers.

The Monitoring Officer advised the Committee that the Council had to follow a new process prior to a Full Council vote in order to dismiss a Protected Officer. From the perspective of the Standards Committee, one such matter was ‘any advice, views or recommendations of a panel’ which had to comprise of at least two Independent Persons appointed under Section 28(7) of the Localism Act 2011; i.e. the Independent Persons of the Standards Committee. In order to implement this aspect of the Regulations, the current Independent Persons would all be invited to become members of the Panel. If more than two accepted then the Council would decide whether to appoint all, but in any event had to appoint at least two. If fewer than two accepted the invitation then Independent Persons from other Authorities might be invited and appointed, in the order prescribed below:

(a)        Independent Persons appointed by the Council who were electors in the    Epping Forest District;

(b)        Independent Persons appointed by the Council; and then finally

(c)        Independent Persons from another Authority.

The Monitoring Officer stated that, prior to the formal invitations being made, it was thought appropriate to draw these matters to the attention of the Standards Committee, and in particular the Independent Persons appointed to it by Council.

The Monitoring Officer added that questions had been raised about the new regulations by Human Resources Officers and Lawyers; for example, should it be a Committee rather than a Panel? The Deputy Monitoring Officer added that these Regulations had been considered at the previous meeting of the Constitution Working Group, and the issues being raised were noted by the Group. The Regulations had to be adopted by the Council at its next meeting in July 2015, and there would be a further review of the Regulations by the Constitution Working Group after six months.

One of the Independent Persons on the Standards Committee stated that they would not wish to be involved, as this was not the reason they joined the Standards Committee for. The Committee felt that it was important that the affected Officers clearly understood their position, and the Monitoring Officer highlighted that the current contracts of employment for the affected Officers did not reflect the requirements of the Regulations and would have to be revised.

Resolved:

(1)        That the impact of the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 on the Council’s current procedures for the dismissal of Statutory Officers be noted.

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report and appendix.

The Select Committee received a report from the Assistant Director (Human Resources) regarding Disciplinary Arrangements for Relevant Officers.

The Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 were new statutory disciplinary and dismissal procedures which applied to heads of paid service, monitoring officers and chief financial officers.

The key elements of the new process were that:

(a)          The dismissal of a relevant officer must be approved by way of a vote at a meeting of the authority, who would be able to dismiss provided they took into account:

(i)    Any advice, views or recommendations of a Panel;

(ii)   The conclusions of any investigation into the proposed dismissal; and

(iii)  Any representations from the relevant officer concerned.

(b)          The process set out above had been extended to cover the Chief Finance Officer and Monitoring Officer.

(c)          It would not apply to disciplinary action short of dismissal.

(d)          The Council was required to set up a Panel and appointed two relevant independent persons to this Panel.

The Panel must include at least two independent persons that would need inviting onto the Panel. The Council could appoint other suitably experienced or qualified independent persons or use an independent person appointed by another authority. Additionally, the normal proportionality rules applied to such committees which meant that the Panel would be subject to the Council’s pro rata rules by which the political groups would have representation there according to their relative numbers on the Council.

The Working Group supported making the Constitutional amendments to adhere to the new regulations. They were also advised that the new regulations provided little detail of how the new process would operate in practice and there were a number of gaps within the legislation regarding composition of the Panel.

The Constitution was required by law to be amended in accordance with Schedule 3 of the 2015 Regulations, once further advice was available from the Local Government Association a guidance note would be submitted to this Working Group for consideration. Members had requested that a review should take place in six months time based on any further advice submitted by the Government.

RECOMMENDED:

(1)  That a report be made to Council recommending the adoption of the revised Officer Employment Procedure Rules and that they be incorporated into the Council’s Constitution; and

(2)  That the revised rules be subject to further revision based on Government guidance in six months time.