Agenda and minutes

            Apologies were reported on behalf of Councillors Gormley, McAllister and McDonough-Brown.

            The minutes of the meeting of 6th January were taken as read and signed as correct.  It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the Council, at its meeting on 10th January, subject to the omission of those matters which had been delegated to the Committee.

            Councillor Pankhurst declared an interest in respect of item 2(b) Notice of Motion – Proposed cuts in Higher Education in that he was a PhD Candidate and employed by a university and left the meeting whilst the item was under consideration.

            The Committee considered a report in relation to Notices of Motion which had been received for consideration by the Council at its meeting on 1st February.

            The Committee considered each motion in turn and agreed the following:

That the motion be referred directly to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee for consideration.

            That the motion calling on Proposed Cuts in Higher Education be referred to the Council for debate, with no restrictions on the number of speakers.

            The Committee agreed to establish an All-Party Working Group to undertake a review of the Council’s Standing Orders.

            It was agreed also that the terms of reference be extended to include a review of the remit of Committees for the next Council term.

The Committee considered the following report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1       The purpose of this report is to provide Members with the latest version of the draft Members Internal Dispute Resolution Protocol which was updated following the workshop on 6th January.  As the process outlined in the protocol may be applicable (on a voluntary basis) to all Members of the council, it is proposed that the protocol be presented to full Council on 1 February for ratification.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       It is recommended that the Standards and Business Committee:

-       agree the draft Members Internal Dispute Resolution Protocol attached at Appendix 1, and

-       agree that the protocol is presented to Council on 1 February for ratification.

3.0       Main report

3.1       Members received a further presentation on a draft Members Internal Dispute Resolution Protocol at the workshop which followed the meeting of the Standards and Business Committee on 6 January 2022.  Members noted that participation in the protocol is on a voluntary basis and that its purpose is to provide an internal mediation mechanism for the prompt resolution of low level disputes between individual members of Council in relation to their behaviour towards each other.  

            Following discussion it was recommended that the protocol should be amended to ensure that a note of the meeting would be made and retained by the Monitoring Officer and a note of the outcome of any mediation meeting including any agreement reached should be recorded by the Monitoring Officer and provided to all participants on a private and confidential basis.

            It was also recommended that as the process outlined in the protocol may be applicable (on a voluntary basis) to all Members of the council, that it should be circulated to all Members and ratified at full council.

            Next Steps

            The draft Members Internal Dispute Resolution Protocol will be presented to Council on 1 February for ratification. 

            If approved, awareness training on the protocol will be rolled out to all Members in February 2022.

3.2       Financial and Resource Implications

            No financial or resource implications attached to this report.

3.3       Equality or Good Relations Implications/

            Rural Needs Assessment

            Any equality, good relations and rural needs assessments implications will be subject to the usual screening processes.”

Appendix

BELFAST CITY COUNCIL

MEMBERS’ INTERNAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROTOCOL

CONTEXT

The Northern Ireland Local Government Code of Conduct for Councillors came into effect in 2014, providing ethical standards and rules for all councillors in Northern Ireland. The Code places personal responsibility on each elected member to manage their own conduct and behaviour and the Local Government Commissioner for Standards is legally empowered to investigate and adjudicate on any alleged breaches of the provisions of the Code.

Council fully endorses both the letter and spirit of the Code and the functions of Council’s Standards and Business Committee include a ‘commitment to ‘uphold the high standards of values and behaviours in a relationship of mutual trust’.

As part of that commitment and in order to afford members to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.