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Written question asked by Robert Neill (Conservative) on Tuesday, 15 December 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 5 January 2010. It was answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Labour) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Councillors: Codes of Practice

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many allegations of breaches of the Code of Conduct by a councillor were referred to the Standards Board in each of the last five years; and how many such cases resulted in a penalty or other sanction in each such year.
Answer

The number of complaints referred to the Standards Board for England in each of the last five years are as follows:

Number
2004-2005 3,861
2005-2006 3,836
2006-2007 3,549
2007-2008 3,547
2008-2009 177

The figure for 2008-09 reflects the introduction of the new locally based conduct regime from May 2008 in which, as recommended by the Commission for Standards in Public Life, all but the most serious allegations of misconduct are handled by individual council's standards committees.The Standards Board has no sanctioning power, but where, after investigation, it considers a complaint referred to it might warrant some sanction, it reports the matter to either the council's standards committee or the Adjudication Panel for England, who then determine whether there has been a breach of the code and if so what sanction to apply.The number of cases referred to councils standards committees or the Adjudication Panel for England were:

Number
2004-2005 189
2005-2006 160
2006-2007 21
2007-2008 23
2008-2009 18

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
503 c882-3W;503 c882W; 308423
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Codes of practice Councillors
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk