Agenda item - Guidance on Member Correspondence

Report of the Head of Law & Monitoring Officer (copy attached).

1)            That the committee approves the Guidance on Member Correspondence  atAppendix 1. to thereport

2)            That the committee agrees that the approved Guidance be circulated to all members together with a covering letter which explains its objective.

85.1      The Committee considered a report of the Head of Law & Monitoring Officer that proposed new guidance on Member correspondence. The aim of the guidance was to provide Members with greater clarity regarding the expectations made of them given increasing volumes of correspondence received with the objective that Members have broad guidance on how to reduce the risk of complaints being made against them.

85.2      Councillor Druitt noted that Members on occasion received blanket correspondence on one issue and it would be very difficult to meet the requirement to respond within three days due to sheer volume.

85.3      Councillor Robins noted that some online petition websites by default sent an unsolicited email to Members when they were signed that added further blanket correspondence.

85.4      Councillor Cobb stated that it was sometimes difficult to reply to correspondence due to significant delay in officers providing Members with the information they needed. Councillor Cobb felt an Officer to Member correspondence framework was required.

85.5      The Lawyer representing the Head of Law & Monitoring Officer noted that she would consider the observations made by the committee for the guidance document including a paragraph relating to correspondence that could be deemed as spam when it was circulated to all Members. The Committee Lawyer advised that there was already existing guidance on timelines for officer to reply to correspondence.

85.6      RESOLVED-

1)            That the Committee approves the Guidance on Member Correspondence atAppendix 1 to thereport

2)            That the Committee agrees that the approved Guidance be circulated to all Members together with a covering letter which explains its objective.