Agenda item - Member Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by councillors:

(a)           Petitions: to receive any petitions submitted to the full Council or at the meeting itself;

(b)          Written Questions: to consider any written questions;

1)    Councillor Meadows- Meetings held by the Chair

2)    Councillor Meadows- Minutes

(c)           Letters: to consider any letters;

1)    Councillor Meadows- Member Expenses

(d)      Notices of Motion: to consider any Notices of Motion referred from Council or submitted directly to the Committee.

(b)      Written Questions

(1)           Meetings held by the Chair

21.1      Councillor Meadows read the following question:

“It has been reported in the press that on Tuesday 30th of August you held a meeting with a local group that provided you with evidence of further irregularities of Councillor expenses.

It has been further reported that following this, a preliminary investigation has been commenced into the matters raised.

Can you provide the Committee with an update on this matter, your meeting(s) with this residents’ group and this investigation?”

21.2      The Chair provided the following reply:

“I can confirm that I did meet with the Friends of Brighton and Hove Citizens Action Group to discuss their request for an urgent audit of claims made by Cllr Tom Druitt relating to the Dependant Carer’s Allowance.

The complaint centred on a conflict between Social Media comments where Cllr Druitt stated that he had not made claims in relation to childcare allowances, and the published records of member expenses for 2018/19 and 2019/20, which included four claims for Dependant Carer’s Allowances from Cllr Druitt for four meetings attended between January and June 2019.

Having noted this apparent conflict, I asked senior officers to review the concerns raised and to report back to me, which they have now done. The Friends Action Group has now received a detailed account of the enquiries carried out by the Assistant Director of Legal & Democratic Services and her findings in order to provide reassurance that the information they supplied has been considered properly.

I can confirm that enquiries indicated that child care allowances were claimed and paid to Cllr Druitt in respect of the four meetings mentioned above. The total cost of the allowances paid was £111.54.

The Member Allowance Scheme provides that Councillors may make claims pursuant to the council’s Dependent Carer Allowance for attendance at council meetings and for council duties up to a maximum of £9 per hour for each child. A total of one hour of travelling time can be added to the claim where applicable to allow the councillor to travel to and from meetings, provided the child remains with the carer for the duration.

The review has found that the correct forms were received and checked by Democratic Services in relation to the meetings attended by Cllr Druitt. The claims related to Council meetings which Cllr Druitt did attend, and which it was legitimate for Cllr Druitt to claim a dependant carers allowances for.

Councillor Druitt has indicated that he did state on social media that he had never claimed child care expenses. He has stated that at the time he made the comments, he believed them to be true. As soon as he reviewed the claims in his name, he removed his comments from Facebook. He also took a decision to repay the allowances. He repaid £116 in March 2022 although there was no requirement for him to do so given that the claims related to legitimate allowances paid for attendance at meetings he did attend in accordance with the Council’s Allowances Scheme.

I’m going to finish my response by quoting from the review letter which has been forwarded to the Friends Group, which I think is worth reading out to give maximum reassurance:

‘The fact that the Social Media posts were not accurate has not impacted on the validity of the claims that were made, no fraud has been committed and no payment has been made to Cllr Druitt in error. The expenses were claimed for legitimate Council business and paid under the Dependant Carers Allowance Scheme’. 

The letter concludes by saying:

‘Following the Audit investigation, further steps have been agreed in relation to the processing arrangements for Councillor Allowances and a follow up report is being brought to the January 2023 Audit & Standards Committee.

There is no evidence of any incorrect claim having been made by Cllr Druitt therefore no further action is proposed.’

In conclusion, having reviewed the information supplied to me and considered the outcome of the enquiry into the concerns of the Group carried out by the Assistant Director of Legal & Democratic Services, I have taken the view that no further action is necessary. I’d like to thank the Friends of Brighton and Hove Citizens Action Group for their time & trouble and to confirm that they have been advised of this outcome by email”. 

21.3      Councillor Meadows put the following supplementary question:

“Can we confirm who signed and submitted those claim forms on behalf of Councillor Druitt and is this a practice we need to be aware of at Standards Committee?”

21.4      The Chair provided the following reply:

“I can confirm as I said earlier that the correct forms were received and checked by Democratic Services in relation to the meetings attended by Councillor Druitt. The claims related to Council meetings which Cllr Druitt did attend, and which it was legitimate for Cllr Druitt to claim a dependant carers allowances for. Having reviewed the information supplied to me and considered the outcome of the enquiry into the concerns of the Group carried out by the Assistant Director of Legal & Democratic Services, I have taken the view that no further action is necessary”.

(2)           Minutes

21.5      Councillor Meadows read the following question:

“Can the Chair provide an explanation as to why the minutes of the last Audit & Standards Committee meeting that were presented to the Full Council meeting on the 21st of July to accompany the item ‘Audit Report on Member Expenses’ did not include the contributions of either Conservative Councillor at that meeting?”

21.6      The Chair provided the following reply:

“Thank you for your question. The minutes of any committee meeting are not the official, agreed record until they have been approved by the next meeting of the committee.

The minutes that accompanied the report referred for information to Full Council in July were a brief record of the points raised at our previous meeting and were produced at haste, to give Full Council a very draft overview of some the questions raised at the committee as well as accounting for the amendment approved at the meeting. I note that the report was referred to that meeting for information and not for decision.

The time between July and now has given opportunity to review the draft and expand it where necessary.

Going forward, any minute extract that is referred from one committee meeting to another, will make it very clear within the extract that it is draft if it has not yet been agreed by that committee.

We have received and approved the formal record of our previous meeting to today’s meeting.

Minutes are not a verbatim record of the meeting and Members have an opportunity under Standing Order 12 to raise matters of accuracy”.

21.7      Councillor Meadows put the following supplementary question:

“Why does the Council sanitise webcast and minutes to distort the record of what actually happened”

21.8      The Chair provided the following reply:

“The minutes in question are draft and an extract of the proceedings of the meeting of this committee held in June have been put before this committee and have been agreed. Minutes are not a verbatim record of proceedings but serve to pick up the main threads of the discussion that led to the conclusion. Therefore, I cannot support your view that the minutes have been sanitised in any way on the basis of what I have just presented to you. They are not a verbatim account, they are draft and therefore, I believe that question has been answered”.

(c)      Letters

21.9      The Committee considered a Letter submitted by Councillor Meadows requesting monthly publication of Members Expenses.

21.10   The Chair provided the following response:

“Following the recommendations at Audit & Standards Committee 28 June 2022, Officers are working to implement electronic claim forms and digitising the process for Member Allowance claims. This will make the audit and review of claims simpler and quicker in the future.  It will also ensure that councillor expenses are published within two months of the end of the financial year and that the council continues to comply with its statutory duty which is to publish these figures annually.

Audit & Standards Committee requested an update report be brought as soon as reasonably possible to a future meeting and I can confirm that this report will be received at the meeting in January 2023.

The Council does not have the officer resource that would be required to move from the annual publication of expenses to monthly publication of these figures.

21.11   Resolved- That the Committee note the Letter.