Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting on 15 June 2022 (circulated separately).

The Minutes of the meeting held on 15 June 2022 were agreed as a correct record and noted by the Chair.

To note declarations of Members’ disclosable pecuniary interests, non-disclosable pecuniary interests and non-pecuniary interests in respect of items on this Agenda.

Councillors T. Kingsbury and P. Zukowskyj both declared non-pecuniary interests as appropriate by virtue of being Members of Hertfordshire County Council.

Report of the Executive Director (Finance and Transformation) on the Annual Review Letter from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Members received a report of the Executive Director (Finance and Transformation) on the Annual Review Letter from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

The report followed the council’s receipt of the annual review letter from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). Each year the LGSCO publishes a summary of local authority complaint statistics that are published on their website. The Council had a statutory duty to report to members and this year it was confirmed that just one complaint was upheld.

The decision notice in the appendix stated that the ombudsman “will not investigate” it is one of the two complaints that were listed as “investigated” in Appendix A as the Ombudsman felt that a detailed investigation was not necessary as it would be unlikely to achieve any more than the council had already implemented.

As previously requested by the committee, Appendix C showed a breakdown of complaints received and upheld categorised using the LGSCO categories.

It was noted that the Council does not receive an annual report from the Local Government Housing Ombudsman but this was being reviewed so that in the future the Council may also receive the annual report from the Local Government Housing Ombudsman.

The following points were noted and discussed:

·         Members stated that in previous versions of the Ombudsman letter, they usually detailed the title of the complaint that had been submitted. Members asked if the details had been received or was there a change to the formatting of how the Ombudsman letter was produced? Members stated that it would be a useful to see which service areas were receiving complaints.  Officers stated that as far as they were aware, everything that the Council had received from the Ombudsman had been published.

·         Members asked if the data produced in Appendix C on the complaints received and upheld were produced by the Ombudsman or the Council.  Officers stated that the data was produced by the Council as this was further information that was requested by the Standards Committee.

RESOLVED:

(unanimous)

Members noted the number of complaints and enquiries received, the decisions made and the outcome of the detailed investigations.

Report of the Assistant Director (Legal and Governance) on updates to the RIPA Authorising Officers and to agree that the corporate RIPA policy is updated.

Members received a report of the Assistant Director (Legal and Governance) on updates to the RIPA Authorising Officers and to agree that the corporate RIPA policy is updated.

The Council’s new Service Director (Resident and Neighbourhood) was now listed as an authorising officer to replace a member of staff who had left.

The new Senior Governance Officer had taken over as the single point of contact (SPOC).

The Assistant Director (Legal and Governance) job title had been amended to reflect changes to the new management structure.

The committee were informed that there had been no investigations that had requested surveillance under RIPA.

The following point was noted and discussed:

·         Members wanted clarification on page 26 of the report around the Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAV) and asked under what circumstances would the Council use them? Officers stated that this was discussed at a previous Standards Committee meeting where drones and the use of drones for planning enforcement was discussed. The Council do not have any unmanned arial vehicles but in an event the council felt it was necessary to have measures in place.

RESOLVED:

(unanimous)

The Standards Committee noted the changes detailed in the report.