JUSTICE AT LAST SEEN TO BE DONE: THE STANDARDS COMMITTEE IN BARNET
My speech to Council - 9 December 2015
About 18 months ago, the Council was in chaos, and the
problem was political proportionality.
Clair Lloyd-Jones' damning report, criticized both the
Council and its legal advisers on their legal provision. Committees had to shut down until
proportionality was correctly calculated.
But one Committee that should not have been politically proportional is what was then known as
the Leaders' Panel which is to emerge again as the Standards Committee to deal
with disciplinary matters of elected members.
The recommendation brought before the Constitution, Ethics and Probity Committee
on 16 November was that there should be two members from each of the two main political
parties with the chair having the casting vote. It was claimed to be
politically equal but it was in fact still balanced in favour of the ruling
party.
The argument put forward in support of this
recommendation was that in practice there was generally concensus among
members, and also that members could be relied on to use their integrity.
However, it seemed that the objections that had been
applied to the former Leaders' Panel could still be applied, and given the
opportunity to rewrite the rules, why not get it as it should be - with no party
having an advantage?
Justice has to be seen to be done, so even if a
majority of cases are purportedly decided by concensus, the very make-up of the
Committee, on paper, must be seen to be fair.
The amendment on the table tonight that in the event
of a tied vote the case would be unproven and therefore dismissesd seems a fair
and good one. And if it is indeed the
case that proceedings usually end in
consensus then the use of this procedure would rarely come into play.
The process of the Committee was a positive one. The
establishment of an independent chair and how this could best be achieved was
contributed to by both sides working together to achieve a solution and I think
the Constitution and the nature of the new Standards Committee will be better
for it.
I support the recommendation and the amendment
NB Both the recommendation and the amendment were agreed.
