Saturday, 6 September 2008
On being Elected as a Member or appointed as a Co-opted Member, individuals must, within two months of acceptance of office, sign a declaration to observe the Code of Conduct. Failure to do so means the Member cannot take up office or attend meetings in the capacity as a Member or Co-opted Member.
You must not bring your office or authority into disrepute while acting in your official capacity, *or at any time through criminal activity that leads to a criminal conviction (*not applicable until such time as parliamentary approval is granted to revise section 52 of the Local Government Act 2000). In addition, you must not use, or attempt to use your position improperly to the advantage or disadvantage of yourself or anyone else.
If you are a Member of more than one Authority you must abide by the Code of Conduct that applies to the Authority whose business you are carrying out at the time. For example, if you are a Councillor and a Member of a Police Authority, you will be bound by the Policy Authority's code of conduct when carrying out Police Authority business.
A breach of the code itself is not a criminal offence. However, if a breach of the code of conduct is found by the Standards Board for England may determine that no further action needs to be taken, suspend a Member for up to one year or disqualify an individual from being a Member for up to 5 years.
If an allegation that a Code of Conduct has been breached is referred to the Standards Committee, the Standards Committee will determine if the code has been breached and if so may determine that there should be no further action or impose a sanction of up to three months suspension.
This form should be signed by Elected Members to declare acceptance of office and their agreement to abide by the Code of Conduct, and can be downloaded from the link below.
Parish Councillors should contact their Town Clerk to obtain the relevant form. It should however, follow a similar format to the form for Elected Members of the Borough Council.
The Borough Council's Code of Conduct is available through the link below.
Parish Council's may have their own code of conduct. However, the provisions will be similar to the Borough Council's code although there may be other provisions within it.
Parish Councillors should obtain a copy of their own Code of Conduct from the Town Clerk, however the Model Code for Parish and Town Council's can be downloaded from the link below.
