S.I. 2008/1085: memorandum from the Department for Communities and Local Government

Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1085)

1. The Committee has requested a memorandum on the following points—

(1) The indentation of the subdivisions in these Regulations (both in the copies supplied to the Committee and in the published version) does not conform to the usual format. Explain how this was allowed to happen and whether the Department intends to arrange for the issue of a correctly formatted replacement.

1. The Regulations were made using the new Version 6.0 of the Statutory Instrument Template which applied the indentations as they appear in the printed version laid before Parliament. The HTML version of the Regulations accessed on the following link http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/uksi_20081085_en_1 does not appear to contain any of the abnormal indentations. The Department has raised the problem with the Stationery Office and will inform the Committee of any developments. The Department does not regard it as necessary to take any further steps in view of the likelihood that most users of the Regulations will access them via the Office of Public Sector Information's website or other commercial publications.

(2) The term "appointment" in regulation 5(1) appears clearly to mean the act of appointing a person to a role when read with sub-paragraphs (a) and (c). When read with sub-paragraph (b), is the term intended to mean an indication of the fact that applications are invited from people wishing to be appointed? If so, what is the justification for using a single term with two different meanings?

1. Regulation 5(1) contains three criteria which must be met before an appointment as an independent member of a local authority's standards committee may be effective. The appointment (in the sense of the act of appointing a person) is valid only if each of those criteria in the three sub-paragraphs are fulfilled and to this extent the Department would submit that the word "appointment" bears the same meaning when read in conjunction with each sub-paragraph. Similar wording contained in regulation 4 of the Relevant Authorities (Standards Committee) Regulations 2001 (SI 2001 No. 2812) has operated in relation to the appointment of independent members to Standards Committees without apparent difficulty for the past seven years. However, we take the point that it might be more helpful to the reader if it were made clearer what it is that has to be advertised in relation to sub-paragraph (b) and will bear this in mind in any future revisions of these Regulations.

1. The Standards Board for England has issued guidance to relevant authorities on the rules relating to the size and composition of standards committees, including the appointment of independent members of standards committees. The guidance, which is available at http://www.standardsboard.gov.uk/Guidance/Standardscommittees/Therole andmake-upofstandardscommittees/filedownload,16605,en.pdf, makes clear that the position of independent member must be advertised in at least one newspaper circulating in the area of a relevant authority before an appointment as independent member may be made.

Department for Communities and Local Government

13th May 2008