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Issue - meetings

Annual Summary of Member Conduct Complaints

 

 

Meeting: 25/06/2026 - Audit and Governance Committee (Item 140)

140 Annual Summary of Member Conduct Complaints pdf icon PDF 88 KB

Purpose:

To advise the Committee of the number and status of Code of Conduct complaints received and considered by the Council’s Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Independent Person, in the period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 and any learnings.

 

Recommendations:

That the Audit and Governance Committee resolves to:

  1. Note the report.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Andrew Brown, Head of Democratic and Electoral Services, presented the report, the purpose of which was to advise the Committee of the number and status of Code of Conduct complaints received and considered by the Council’s Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Independent Person, in the period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 and any learnings.

 

In his presentation the Head of Democratic and Electoral Services made the following points:

 

  • The Committee had a role in overseeing code of conduct complaints.
  • Complaints could be received about District as well as Town and Parish Councillors.
  • In the year to 31 March 2026, 16 code of conduct complaints had been received.
  • All complaints go through a set process. The complaint handling process had been reviewed and gone through Full Council in November 2024 and was considered to be working well.
  • The aim was to deal with complaints at the lowest possible level with only serious complaints progressing to  the investigation stage. At each stage of the process there was consultation with one of the three Independent Members.
  • The table at paragraph 2.4 showed that no complaints had gone to the investigation stage. All complaints were either informally resolved or dismissed with recommendations for further action. An example of such recommendations was consultation with Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils (OALC).
  • The report included a summary of the subject matter of the complaints
  • The report included a summary of learnings from complaints.

 

There were no comments or questions from the Committee.

 

Councillor Elizabeth Poskitt proposed that the Committee accept the recommendation in the report.

 

Councillor Adam Clements seconded the proposal, this was put to the vote and agreed by the Committee.

 

That the Audit and Governance Committee resolved to:

1.    Note the report.

 

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