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City of York Council |
Minutes |
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Meeting |
Joint Standards Committee |
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Date |
22 January 2026 |
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Present |
Councillors Fisher, Runciman (Chair), Kent and Steward Parish Councillors Waudby (Vice-Chair) and Chambers |
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Ms R Mazza (Independent Person) |
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Apologies |
Councillor Pavlovic and Geogheghan-Breen |
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25. Apologies for Absence (4.02 pm)
Apologies were received and noted from Parish Councillor Breen and Councillor Pavlovic.
26. Declarations of Interest (4.02 pm)
Members were asked to declare any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, or any prejudicial interests or disclosable pecuniary interests which they might have in respect of business on the agenda. None were declared.
27. Exclusion of Press and Public (4.03 pm)
Resolved: That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the exempt versions of Annexes A and B to Agenda Item 9 (Monitoring Report in Respect of Complaints Received), on the grounds that they contain information likely to reveal the identity of individuals, which is classed as exempt under Paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006.
28. Minutes (4.03 pm)
Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Standards Committee held on 1 December 2025 be approved as a correct record.
Chair’s statement
The Chair made a statement regarding her comments at the last meeting, where she had said that one of the committee’s biggest problems was someone who was not whipped. She recognised that her choice of words had caused offence to the council’s single independent member and apologised for this. She clarified that her comment was in the context of how discussions around how Group Leaders could be used to encourage a subject member to engage with training following an identified breach of the member code of conduct. She confirmed that, as her comments might appear to demonstrate a bias, she would step back from any future standards matter involving the present independent member.
29. Public Participation (4.04 pm)
It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.
30. Review of Allegation Handling Arrangements Update (4.05 pm)
The Head of Legal Services introduced the report, explaining the most recent changes to the draft Appendix 29. There were three key areas that had been amended since the last draft: clarification of the role of the Independent Person, the time limit on a speaker at a hearing, and changes to the newly introduced register of decisions. It was proposed to raise the time limit for speakers at a hearing to 10 mins, with provision to allow more time at the discretion of the Chair. It was also proposed to allow the committee to consider any previous informal resolutions or breach decisions relating to a subject member to help identify patterns of behaviour and to ensure that any sanction took into account whether the breach had occurred before, the number of times it had occurred, and any previous response to imposed sanctions.
Members were unanimously in favour of the proposed changes, and it was
Resolved: That the committee recommend to Full Council the changes to the existing procedure and the adoption of the new draft Appendix 29.
Reason: To address the current issues with the case handling procedures.
31. Review of Work Plan (4.26 pm)
Members considered the committee’s work plan for the current municipal year.
Resolved: That the work plan be approved subject to the following additions:
19 March 2026
· Member Development and Induction, report of Working Group.
· Parish Liaison
Reason: To ensure that the committee has a planned programme of work in place.
32. Monitoring Report on Complaints Received (4.28 pm)
Members considered a report which provided an update on current business as regards complaints. The Head of Democratic Services drew the committee’s attention to appendix C, which provided a record of the actions enacted over the last 12 months as requested by members at the last meeting.
Resolved: That the report be noted.
Reason: To ensure that the committee is aware of current levels of activity.
Cllr C Runciman, Chair
The meeting started at 4.01 pm and finished at 4.39 pm.