Covering report - Complaint against a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority

Report: 5
Date: 15 September 2010
By: Chief Executive

Summary

A complaint about a Member of the MPA, and for the sub-committee to consider and decide what action, if any, to take.

A. Recommendation

That

1. Having regard to any relevant guidance of Standards for England and professional advice from MPA staff, the sub-committee must assess the complaint (confidential report) and decide one of the following:
   1. that no action should be taken; or
   2. that no action should be taken for the time being, and to adjourn the meeting; or
   3. after speaking with the Monitoring Officer, to pass the matter to the MPA’s Monitoring Officer-
      1. with an instruction to arrange for the Member complained about to attend a training course; and/or for the complainant and the Member to participate in mediation; and/or for other steps (not including an investigation) to be taken, which the Assessment Sub-committee thinks are appropriate; or
      2. with an instruction to arrange for a formal investigation of the matter.

OR

4. to pass the complaint to Standards for England for consideration.

2. The sub-committee must then decide:
   2. whether a written summary of the complaint and the identity of the complainant should, following the meeting, be provided to the Member complained about; and
   3. if the sub-committee decides that not all of this information should be provided, it must decide what information, if any, should be provided to the Member concerned.
3. Once the sub-committee has made a decision under 1 and 2 above, it must record the main points it considered, its conclusion and the reasons for its conclusions.
4. It is recommended that, following its assessment of the complaints, the sub-committee decides what, if any, criteria or factors should be used to assist this sub-committee in the future in assessing cases and allegations, and to recommend that the GLA’s Standards Committee approves these.

B. Supporting information

1. The Authority has received a complaint from a member of the public alleging that a Member has breached the MPA’s Code of Conduct by GLA Members. This sub-committee is legally obliged to assess the complaint.

2. Attached to this report as confidential attachments are:

•  the complaint;
•  a written summary of the complaint; and
•  all related correspondence and any other relevant information and documentation.

3. Pursuant to Regulation 8 of the Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008/1085 and Standards for England’s guidance, “Local Assessment of Complaints,” the attachments must not be published, and the entirety of this meeting must be held in private.

4. The sub-committee is legally obliged to assess the complaint, and take the decisions at Decisions Required 1 – 3 above, which are self-explanatory.

5. With regards to Decision Required 4 above, Standards for England’s Guidance “Local Assessment of Complaints,” recommends that:

“The standards committee or its Assessment Sub-committee will need to develop criteria against which it assesses new complaints and decides what action, if any, to take. These criteria should reflect local circumstances and priorities and be simple, clear and open….”

6. The Committee should have regard to the Standards for England Guidance when deciding what criteria, if any, it will ask the GLA’s Standards Committee to approve.

C. Other organisational and community implications

1. Equalities Impact

1.1 There are no direct equalities impacts arising from this report.

2. Met Forward

2.1 There are no direct Met Forward implications arising from this report. However it is important that the community have confidence in the Authority’s mechanisms to respond to complaints / concerns and furthermore its ability to fight crime and reduce criminality, deliver value for money and increase public confidence in policing.

3. Financial Implications

3.1 If, after having assessed a complaint, the committee decides that the Member complained about should be required to undertake training, or engage in mediation, this could have financial implications for the MPA

3.2 There may also be financial implications if the committee decides that a complaint needs to be investigated.

3.3 The extent of these financial implications will, however, depend upon whether any training or investigations can be dealt with ‘in house’ or if the committee decides that these must be done by external providers.

3.4 If dealt with ‘in house’ this could take a considerable amount of officer time and may have funding implications. If dealt with externally, the costs could be quite extensive.

3.5 It is, therefore, possible that the potential costs may not be containable within existing budget allocation, and that these costs should therefore be reviewed.

4. Legal Implications

4.1 Included within the report.

4.2 Within 5 working days of makings its decision on the complaints, the complainants and members concerned should be provided with a Decision Notice, containing the sub-committee’s decision.

4.3 Once Decision Notices have been sent to the complainants and the Members concerned, the GLA must publish the Decision Notices so that they are publicly available for a period of six years beginning with the date of the Assessment Sub-committee’s meeting.

5. Environmental Implications

5.1 There are no direct environmental implications arising from this report.

6. Risk Implications

6.1 There are no risk implications arising from this report.

D. Background papers

• The MPA’s Code of Conduct for Members
• The Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008/1085
• The Local Government Act 2000 (as amended)
• The Standards for England’s guidance “Local Assessment of Complaints”
• The MPA’s Guidance on making a complaint about a GLA Member’s conduct

E. Contact details

Report author(s): Helen Sargeant, Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, MPA

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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