Freedom of information response
Councillor standards
1. In the last 5 years how many complaints has your council received against members of the council?
2. Can you give the above figure broken down by year?
3. How many complaints were progressed to an investigation?
4. How many complaints led to some form of standards hearing?
5. In those cases that progressed to a standards hearing, what were the charges/allegations/complaints and how many of those were upheld/found to be proved against the councillor?
6. Where allegation were upheld/found to be proved, what sanctions, penalties or punishments were imposed?
7. Please can you break the answers to 3-6 down by year or give dates for the investigations and hearings?
1. In the last 5 years how many complaints has your council received against members of the council?
The Council does not hold the information requested going back 5 years. The majority of information held was reported to the Council’s Standards and Audit Committee. Please see web links below.
Agenda for Standards and Audit Committee on Wednesday, 19th July, 2023, 7.00 pm | Thurrock Council
In addition to this, information is held regarding 4 Member code of conduct complaints which were received between 22 September 2021-27 February 2022 which were not reported to the Standards and Audit Committee.
2021
Complaint 1:
Allegation: Disrespect
Outcome: No potential breach of the code – no further action taken.
Complaint 2:
Allegations: Conferring a disadvantage and failure to comply with legal obligations
Outcome – No potential breach of the code. No further action taken.
Complaint 3:
Allegations: Failure to make a decision on merits, failure to be accountable for decisions, failure to be open about decisions and failure to promote high standards- leadership
Outcome – No potential breach. No further action taken
2022
Complaint 4:
Allegation : Disrespect
Outcome: Both parties agreed to stop putting posts on Facebook about one another .
2. Can you give the above figure broken down by year?
This information is contained within the Standards and Audit Committee reports links and response to question 1.
3. How many complaints were progressed to an investigation?
Please see response to question 1 above and question 7 below.
4. How many complaints led to some form of standards hearing?
Please see response to question 1 and question 7.
5. In those cases that progressed to a standards hearing, what were the charges/allegations/complaints and how many of those were upheld/found to be proved against the councillor?
See response to question 7 below
6. Where allegation were upheld/found to be proved, what sanctions, penalties or punishments were imposed?
Please see response to question 1 above and response to question 7 below
7. Please can you break the answers to 3-6 down by year or give dates for the investigations and hearings?
One investigation and hearing took place during the municipal year 2023/24. The complaint was upheld. The sanction imposed was an apology and training.