Doncaster Council

Who is Doncaster Council's Monitoring Officer?

Paul Evans  
Monitoring Officer
Doncaster Council
Floor 2
The Council House                                                                                                 
College Road                                                                                                                    Doncaster                                                                                                                                
DN1 1RN

Telephone: (01302) 737807 
Facsimile:   (01302) 736260

Email:  TheMonitoringOfficer@doncaster.gov.uk

The role of the Monitoring Officer

Monitoring Officers need to be aware of the potential conflicts involved in advising the Standards Committee and advising Members of the Standards (Parish Councils) sub-Committee.

Advising the Standards Committee
It is important that Standards Committees receive high quality, independent advice. The Standards Board for England therefore recommends that a Monitoring Officer should be the main advisor to the Standards Committee, unless they have an interest in the matter that would prevent them from performing this role independently. If this situation arises, a Monitoring Officer should arrange for another appropriately qualified officer to advise the Standards Committee.

In advising the Standards Committee, the Monitoring Officer or other legal advisor’s role is to:

• make sure that Members of the Standards Committee understand their powers and procedures;
• make sure that the determination procedure is fair and will allow the allegation to be dealt with as efficiently and effectively as possible;
• make sure that the Member who the allegation has been made about understands the procedures the Standards Committee will follow;
• provide advice to the Standards Committee during the hearing and their deliberations; and
• help the Standards Committee produce a written decision and a summary of that decision.              

Advising Members
Monitoring Officers play an important role in advising their members on a day to day basis. When performing this role, Monitoring Officers need to be aware of the potential conflicts of interest that can arise, as these conflicts could prevent them from advising the Standards Committee at a later stage.

However, conflicts of interest are not likely to arise simply from informal discussions between Members and Monitoring Officers.
 
The Standards Board for England recommends that Monitoring Officers consider options for reducing the likelihood of such conflicts, including:

• arranging for another officer to advise Members; or
• continuing to advise Members, identifying possible scenarios that may lead to future conflicts, and reassuring themselves that, if their advice could be material to an investigation, they have another appropriately experienced officer who is prepared to support the Standards Committee in its hearings and deliberations.