Audit Standards & General Purposes Committee
Agenda Item 13
Date of meeting: 24th June 2025
Report of: Elizabeth Culbert, Director – Governance & Law and Monitoring Officer
Contact Officer: Name: Victoria Simpson, Senior Lawyer – Corporate Law
Email: Victoria.Simpson@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Ward(s) affected: All
1.1. To provide a quarterly update, both on complaints received in alleging that Members have breached the Council’s Code of Conduct for Members and on related matters.
2.1 That Committee agrees to note this Report.
3.1. The Council is required by the Localism Act 2011 to have in place arrangements for dealing with complaints against elected and co-opted Members. Brighton & Hove City Council reviews its arrangements regularly and takes a proactive approach to publishing information on this topic on its website, while making data on member complaints available to the public via these reports to this Committee.
3.2. At Brighton & Hove City Council, the Audit, Standards and General Purposes Committee has delegated authority for leading in discharging the statutory requirement that the Council maintain and promote high standards of conduct by Members. The Committee receives quarterly reports on complaints against members as well as information on the training and briefings offered to assist Members in discharging their responsibilities according to the Nolan Principles.
3.3. This quarterly Report provides data on the live complaints to provide reassurance that complaints are being considered and dealt with in accordance with the Council’s processes.
4.1. This data is provided in Appendix 1, at table 1.
New complaints received in since the last Update in January 2025
4.2. This data is provided in table 2 of Appendix 1.
4.4. The complaints referred to in this section are being progressed by the office of the Monitoring Officer in accordance with the Procedure which governs member complaints.
5.1 Committee members will be aware that the Government’s main consultation on its proposed changes to strengthen the framework which governs the conduct of members of local authorities closed on 26.2.25. It reportedly attracted over 2,000 responses and the most recent information provided is that those are still being considered. While a formal response from the Government – including any proposed legislative changes - is yet to be announced, a watching brief continues to be kept. This Committee will be kept informed of progress.
6.1. The Council is obliged under the Localism Act to make arrangements for maintaining high standards of conduct among members and to make arrangements for the investigation of complaints. This Council’s arrangements are regularly reviewed. This Report draws attention to the wider picture without recommending specific options.
7.1 Past reviews of the Council’s Standards arrangements (most recently in 2021) have been carried out by its elected Members and the Council’s Independent Persons, supported by officers who have provided stakeholder data as well as signposting relevant LGA resources.
8.1 There are no direct financial implications arising from this report. Any activity in relation to monitoring standards and investigating complaints is met from existing budgets.
Name of finance officer consulted: Haley Woollard Date consulted: 06/06/25
These are covered in the Report.
Name of lawyer consulted: Victoria Simpson Date consulted 28/5/25
10.1 If fundamental changes are made to the standards framework, that will likely create additional pressure on the Council’s resources. That pressure will continue post-implementation if councils are required to set up a dedicated Standards Committee and/or are made the nominated body for the hearing of appeals rather than an external body. It is also possible that the volume of complaints may increase, not necessarily as a result of a spike in member conduct issues, but because of the publicity the changes will likely attract and the perception that the regime is being given more ‘teeth’.
10.2 Any changes are likely to result in a prescribed approach across all principal authorities. Those changes will generate the risk that the current allocated resource is insufficient to ensure that new statutory timescales (potentially relevant not just to the processing of complaints, but in relation to their determination, including at appeal stage) are consistently adhered to. However the risks and their potential impacts can only be identified and reviewed in a meaningful way once the proposals are finalised.
There are no equalities implications arising from this Report, which provides reassurance on the arrangements which have been developed with the need to ensure the Council and its members discharge their responsibilities with appropriate regard for equalities considerations in mind.
No sustainability implications have been identified.
No other implications have been identified.
Members are asked to note the contents of this Report, which aims to assist the Council in discharging its responsibilities for overseeing that standards of conduct are maintained in a way which is compliant with local requirements.
Supporting Documentation
Strengthening the standards and conduct framework for local authorities in England - GOV.UK
Appendices
Appendix 1 – data on member complaints previously reported to Committee (Table 1 and new Complaints (Table 2)