4  General conduct

Section 3 of the Code covers how councillors are expected to behave. This includes:

• the requirement to treat others with courtesy and respect
• refraining from becoming inappropriately involved in operational matters
• maintaining confidentiality
• what you should consider and do when offered any gifts or hospitality.

Next, move onto 4.1  Confidentiality.

The Code provides that you must not disclose confidential information, or information that should reasonably be regarded as confidential or private, without the express consent of a person or body authorised to give such consent. If you cannot obtain such consent, you should assume it is not given.

The Code makes it clear that confidential information is not only information deemed to be confidential by statute. It can also include discussions, documents and information that are not yet public, or were never intended to be public.

Confidential information includes:

• commercial information such as information relating to a contract or a contractor’s business

• personal or sensitive information such as information relating to an individual’s employment or health

• information that is confidential as a result of a statutory provision

• information discussed in closed or private sections of meetings

• legal advice obtained by the Council (whether provided by officers or external legal advisers) – this is covered by legal privilege and must not be disclosed without the Council’s permission.

The Code states that you may use confidential information only to undertake your duties as a councillor. It must not be used for personal or party‑political advantage, or to discredit the Council – even if you believe the information should be publicly available.

Sometimes confidentiality relates to timing, in that the intention may always be to release the information at a later stage. However, you must respect any requirement for confidentiality even if you consider the information should be released earlier.

You should seek advice if you are in any doubt about whether documents, information or advice are confidential, particularly if you intend to disclose content to any outside body or individual.

Councillors are required to provide strategic leadership and oversight. This involves:

• setting strategy and policy

• scrutinising performance against strategic aims

• making major or complex decisions that affect the Council as a whole.

Councillors are not responsible for operational management, which involves planning, organising, and carrying out day‑to‑day activities and service delivery. Operational management is the responsibility of officers. If you, as a councillor, become too involved in operational matters, you may lose focus on your strategic responsibilities.

It is recognised, however, that councillors are also required to be involved in certain operational matters when:

• undertaking advocacy work, including any lobbying or campaigning

• assisting local groups with community engagement and capacity-building

• representing constituents and undertaking casework

• making decisions on quasi‑judicial or regulatory applications as a member of a regulatory, licensing, planning or appeals and appointments committee.

If a decision involves purely operational or administrative issues, with expenditure within existing budgets, it will usually be made by an officer without reference to elected members. Some decisions may include both operational and strategic elements. In such cases, officers may consult certain elected members (such as the Leader or Deputy Leader, committee chairs, or ward members) to ensure that they have appropriate engagement before making the decision.

Responding to a press enquiry on behalf of the Council will normally be a matter for officers, although they may consult certain elected members if, for example, a quote is required.

While elected members may be on appointments committees that recruit and appoint senior officers, this does not mean they have any day‑to‑day line management responsibilities or a role in instructing or carrying out the work of senior officers.

The Code’s provisions on gifts and hospitality are designed to avoid any perception that councillors are using their role to obtain benefits that members of the public would have to pay for. They also help prevent councillors being influenced into making decisions for reasons other than the public interest (for example, by individuals or groups seeking contracts or licences).

The exceptions under paragraph 3.15 are:

To determine whether an offer falls within these exceptions you must apply the objective test: whether a member of the public, with knowledge of the relevant facts, would reasonably consider that acceptance of the gift or hospitality might influence your discussion or decision-making.

You should always question whether the gift or hospitality would have been offered to you if you were not a councillor. You should consider not only your own perception but also the perception of others.

The Code recognises that you may reasonably accept hospitality associated with representing your Council in a civic role, such as a dinner to commemorate an anniversary of a local event. It also recognises that you may be expected to accept gifts on the Council’s behalf, particularly where refusal could cause offence. In such cases, you must accept the gift on behalf of the Council and pass it to the appropriate officer.

You are required to advise your Council’s Monitoring Officer promptly if you are offered, but refuse, any gift or hospitality of significant value, or if you receive repeated offers from the same source. This enables the Council to monitor the situation and take any appropriate action.

The Standards Commission’s Advice Note for Councillors on Gifts and Hospitality includes detailed information and examples of typical scenarios to help councillors reach fair, transparent decisions about what gifts and hospitality should be accepted or declined.

As a councillor, you have a role in representing the electorate at a ward level. In doing so, you may be expected to undertake casework on behalf of individual constituents and are allowed to campaign on local issues.

When asked for assistance, you should manage the constituent’s expectations about the extent to which you can help. For example, you should advise them that you can seek information on their behalf, but you cannot overturn a decision and they must follow the appropriate procedures for doing so. You cannot insist on a particular outcome. You should also advise constituents that you cannot seek legal advice from the Council on their behalf or pass on any legal advice provided to the Council either by an officer or an external firm.

You should not pursue casework that is likely to come before you at a quasi‑judicial or regulatory committee because this may prevent you from taking part in the discussion and voting.

To avoid becoming inappropriately involved in operational matters and to prevent conflicts arising, consider exactly what you are being asked to do. There should be no difficulty if you have managed your constituent’s expectations appropriately and are simply:

• advising officers of representations received

• helping constituents make their views known to the appropriate officer, or advising them about who to contact and the correct procedure

• assisting a group of constituents with community engagement

• seeking factual information on progress on behalf of a constituent.

Section 3 of the Code also covers your general conduct. The Code requires you to treat colleagues, council officers and the public with courtesy and respect at all times, even if you disagree with their views. This applies in person, in writing, at meetings and when you are online, including when using social media. The Code also requires you to respect and comply with rulings from the chair or convener during council meetings, committee meetings or meetings of any outside body to which you are appointed by the Council.

While you are entitled to express your views and disagree with others, you must do so in a respectful way. It is usually better to focus on the issue itself rather than making personal comments about an individual.

If you make a comment in the heat of the moment that you do not mean and subsequently regret, you should consider retracting it and apologising. Bear in mind, however, that comments made on social media may have circulated widely by the time you seek to retract them or apologise.

You are expected to advance equality of opportunity and to seek to foster good relations between different people. You must not express views that indicate a discriminatory attitude towards people on the basis of race, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy/maternity.

The Code also notes that it is the impact of the behaviour, not the intent, that is key.

It should be noted that the Code does not require you to respond to all correspondence, phone calls or enquiries from members of the public or constituents. In some cases, it may be better to refrain from responding.

Due to the public nature of social media, and your profile as a local authority member, members of the public may automatically assume that you are commenting in your capacity as an elected politician in anything you post, publish or share online. As such, it is likely that the Code will apply to your conduct.

When deciding if an account is truly private, consider your followers and why they follow you. If any are unknown to you or include organisations such as your political party, it is likely they follow you as a councillor. The Code may still apply even if you rename an account for campaigning purposes (for example, from ‘@CllrX’ to ‘XforYTown’) while keeping the same content and followers.

The conduct expected of you in a digital medium is no different from the conduct expected in other forms of communication, such as face‑to‑face meetings and letters. Before commenting or posting, you should ask yourself whether:

• you understand the immediate and permanent nature of any comment or post you are about to make, and that you will have no control over the extent to which it is shared and by whom
• you would make that comment or post in person, face-to-face
• you have such conviction in what you are about to share that you would be prepared to justify it if challenged at a later date
• you fully understand that even if you delete your post, it may have been captured in a screenshot or otherwise retained, including through automatic online caching, and that fully deleting content once shared online is almost impossible.

You should always consider whether you need to respond to a comment made about you or posted on your page, and whether it is appropriate or helpful to do so. Sometimes people will say unpleasant things for the sake of it and people in public life can be singled out for unwarranted abuse. You are entitled to engage with members of the public online and correct false information. However, if someone is being abusive, offensive or sarcastic, you should consider whether there is any value in engaging.

The Standards Commission has produced an Advice Note for Councillors on the Use of Social Media.

The Code states that you must not undermine any individual officer or group of officers, or raise concerns about their performance, conduct or capability in public. As a councillor you are entitled to scrutinise the effective delivery of services. You should be careful, however, not to make public statements that expressly or by implication criticise the actions or inaction of an identifiable individual officer or group of officers (including where individuals in that group are, or could be, identifiable).

You should note that the concept of a public statement is wide. It can include the published minutes of a meeting, a comment on social media, or remarks overheard in a public area such as a corridor or tearoom. Mutual respect and courtesy between councillors and those who work for, or on behalf of, your Council is essential, as this helps to ensure that local government runs efficiently and effectively.

The Code further provides that you must not take, or seek to take, unfair advantage of your position as a councillor in your dealings with officers. You should be mindful that you hold a position of inherent power and influence over officers, particularly more junior officers who may not be used to dealing directly with elected members.

The Code also provides that you must not bring undue influence to bear on officers to take a particular action. You must not ask or direct an officer to do something that you know, or should reasonably know, could compromise them or prevent them from undertaking their duties properly.

You have a right to receive good-quality information from officers on which to base your decisions and undertake your scrutiny role. If you believe that you are not receiving the information you need to make an informed decision, you should raise this with an appropriate senior officer, such as the relevant Head of Service. You should note, however, that although you may ask officers for information, this does not mean you have a right to receive it, or you can demand that it be provided. When seeking information, you must do so in a courteous and respectful manner.

The Improvement Service and Standards Commission have produced a joint Briefing Note on Right of Access to Information Held by the Council.

The Code states that you should not become inappropriately involved in the operational management of the Council’s services.

The Standards Commission has produced:

• an Advice Note for Councillors on Distinguishing Between Their Strategic Role and Any Operational Work
• a Councillors Assisting Constituents Card aimed at helping councillors manage their constituents’ expectations about what they can and cannot do for them.

When considering your involvement, think about whether the matter concerns your ward. If it relates to an operational matter in another ward and concerns a matter that you have no specific remit over or interest in, your involvement is likely to be inappropriate. If you repeatedly contact officers about an operational matter, you may be perceived as being directive or becoming inappropriately involved.

You have a right to receive good-quality information from officers to support your scrutiny role. However, you only have a right to information that is reasonably necessary to enable you to perform your duties properly. This is known as the ‘need to know’ principle. For more information, see the Briefing Note on Right of Access to Information Held by the Council.

You should not become involved in any individual staffing matter except when serving on a committee, such as a Personnel Appeals Committee, that is tasked with dealing with the specific matter. Having made a decision on an individual staffing matter when serving on a committee, you must not take part in any follow‑up work.