FI16170
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting information on your council’s Code of Conduct investigations into councillors, for the financial years 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 (taking the financial year from 1 April to 31 March.)
1. Published Reports or Online Links
Please provide the URLs or copies of any annual or quarterly reports published on your website that summarise Code of Conduct complaints, outcomes, and investigations for the above years. This may include Standards Committee reports, Monitoring Officer updates, or local governance summaries. (For this request, I am not interested in any Parish Council investigations / complaints).
2. Case-Level Investigation Data
For each individual complaint that was formally investigated (not just referred or dismissed at initial filter stage), please provide this data in a spreadsheet or CSV, one row per case:
• Financial Year
• Investigator Type
• Total Cost of case (£)
• Hours Charged in the case
• Outcome Type
• Investigator Type should be one of:
o Internal officer (e.g. MO/DMO)
o Reciprocal arrangement with another Council
o Independent freelancer
o Specialist agency (e.g. Hoey Ainscough)
o Law firm or solicitor (e.g. VWV, Wilkin Chapman Rollits, etc.)
o Other (please specify)
• Outcome Codes
Please include a basic outcome classification, such as:
o no breach
o informal resolution
o breach found
o referred to full Standards Committee, etc.
For example:
Year Investigator Type Total Cost Hours Outcome Type
2022/23 Freelancer £2,000 30 hrs Breach Upheld
2022/23 Specialist agency £1,800 12 hrs No breach
2023/24 Law firm £4,000 15 hrs Informal resolution
3. Nil responses
Please indicate if there is a nil response in any year, i.e. if there were no formal investigations.
4. Parishes or Town Councils – out of scope
Details of Parish / Town Council complaints which are referred to a District / Borough Council Monitoring Officer are not requested as part of this Freedom of Information Act request.
Response
1. This information is available online as follows:
2022/23: https://moderngov.dover.gov.uk/documents/s51978/FINAL%2022-23%20Appendix%20A%20-%20Annual%20Governance%20Report.pdf
2023/24: https://moderngov.dover.gov.uk/documents/s56587/FINAL%2023-24%20Appendix%201%20Annual%20Governance%20Report%202024.pdf
2024/25: https://moderngov.dover.gov.uk/documents/s61967/FINAL%2024-25%20Appendix%201%20Annual%20Governance%20Report%202025.pdf
2. Information about investigations is set out below
|
Year
|
Investigator Type
|
Total Cost
|
Hours
|
Outcome Type
|
|
2022/23
|
No Formal Investigations
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
2023/24
|
No Formal Investigations
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
2024/25
|
Specialist Agency
|
Unknown at present – investigation ongoing
|
Unknown at present – investigation ongoing
|
Yet to be determined – investigation ongoing
|