Ethical standards clinic

In the pre-hearing stage, the subject member has made a request to hold the hearing in private. How should I respond as no reasons have been given as to why the request should be made in private and the Chairman is adamant the hearing take place in public?

There is a general presumption that Standards Committee hearings will be held in public. However in some circumstances, parts of, or the whole of, the hearing may need to be held in private to deal with matters that may be considered exempt under Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), including matters which may reveal sensitive personal information about the member or a witness.

The first point to appreciate is that the request is made to the Standards Committee and not the Monitoring Officer or the Chair person of the Committee. This means that the Standards Committee, as a decision making body, must decide whether the proceedings will take place in public or private.

The Standards Committee may decide to consider the request at a separate meeting in advance of the hearing, or may decide that it will make the decision at the hearing and treat it as a preliminary issue in the order of proceedings. In either case, the Committee should be prepared to accept submissions by or on behalf of the subject member and from either the local investigator or Ethical Standards Officer (depending on how the investigation was handled – local or central).

The Standards Committee are entitled to seek further information from the subject member who has made the request as to reasons why it is necessary for the hearing to be held in private. This will enable the Committee to consider the request and make a decision based upon all relevant information available.

If the request is dealt with as a preliminary issue at the hearing, the investigator’s report and accompanying papers (if any) should not be made available to the public in advance of the hearing. In these circumstances, an agenda listing the order of proceedings should be made publicly available (without the investigator’s report). On the day of the hearing, public copies of the report may need to be made available in the event that the Committee decides the hearing should take place in public.