Policy Complaints procedure

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5. Initial Assessment Stage 2

Once the Subject Member’s views have been provided or the deadline has passed and no comments have been received and / or any attempts at informal resolution have been unsuccessful, the complaint will then be placed before the next available Standards Assessment Sub-Committee for a decision on how the complaint is to progress. 

A Complainant will be kept informed of how the complaint progresses and the date of the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee. It is expected that the Standards Assessment Sub-Committee will consider the matter within six weeks of the confirmation of the initial assessment.

Meetings of the Assessment Sub-Committee will generally be held in private given that the information to be discussed relates to individuals, is subject to confidentiality at this stage and has not been subject to any formal findings and may therefore be potentially unfounded and damaging.

The Assessment Sub-Committee will be drawn from members of the Standards Committee as detailed in the Council’s Constitution. The process to be followed at the Assessment Sub-Committee is detailed in Appendix 3

The Standards Assessment Sub-Committee will receive reports from the Monitoring Officer to assess any valid complaint and determine the appropriate action to be taken. The Monitoring Officer’s report will summarise the complaint, the Subject Member’s views (if any) and will provide such documentation as is appropriate and will detail any attempts at informally resolving the complaint. The report will make a recommendation to the Assessment Sub-Committee but it will be for the Assessment Sub-Committee to consider and determine how the matter progresses. At this stage, the Assessment Sub-Committee will not normally consider any further representations or correspondence from either the Complainant or Subject Member.

The report of the Monitoring Officer will be written having regard to the ‘Local Assessment Criteria’