Local Determination and Adjudication Panel

At the end of an investigation the Ethical Standards Officer may decide (assuming that they consider there is case to answer) that the case should be referred back to the Standards and Governance Committee. These are likely to be less serious matters – more serious cases are likely to referred to the national Adjudication Panel. The Committee can then decide if there is a breach of the Code, and if so what penalty to impose. The Committee can suspend the member for up to three months. The Committee has adopted procedures for dealing with such hearings – called local determinations. These may be accessed by clicking on the link to the right.

The Adjudication Panel for England has been established by Part III, Chapter IV of the Local Government Act 2000 to hear and adjudicate on more serious matters concerning the conduct of local authority members. The link to its website is on the right.