03 August 2007
There has been a marked drop in the number of councillor misconduct cases being referred to the national disciplinary tribunal.
According to the Adjudication Panel for England's annual report, published on August 3, just eight cases were received in the year ending March 31, compared with 66 in 2006. The panel issued 19 determinations over the year, compared with 89 the previous year. Six councillors were disqualified and a further three suspended.
The Adjudication Panel considers cases referred by the Standards Board for England, local government's ethics watchdog. It handles only a small minority of the complaints received by the board, most of which are resolved by local authorities' own standards committees.
Standards Board spokesman Tim Bogan said: 'The report shows that there's been a significant drop in the number of cases serious enough to be referred to the Adjudication Panel.
'This is a positive sign — it suggests that local authority members are coming to accept the importance of high ethical standards, and their understanding of how their own conduct constitutes those standards is increasing.'
PFaug2007
