Agenda item

The report applies to officers and employees of the Council only, it does not apply to Members (councillors).

The report presents the annual gifts and hospitality report of the Council to the Audit and Governance Committee to provide transparency and accountability.

The report summarises the gifts and hospitality activity over the last year and analyses the effectiveness of the Council’s process and system.

Witnesses:

Shella Smith, Director of People and Change

Michael Coughlin, Interim Head of Paid Service

Asmat Hussain, Interim Director of Law and Governance; Monitoring Officer

Key points raised in the discussion:

1.    The Director of People and Change noted that any small token of goodwill should be politely declined and generally offers of hospitality should be refused. Officers and employees must declare any offers of a gift or hospitality on the register and whether offers are refused, declined or donated to charity. In 2023/24 there were 73 declarations, and of those 45 were accepted, 23 declined and 5 donated; that followed a similar pattern over the last few years. She highlighted that a large amount of the hospitality offers received related to the Stars in Surrey Awards for staff, sponsored by various businesses.

2.    A Committee member referred to the recommendations in the report around ‘Clear and concise guidelines around hospitality’, querying whether there were already guidelines in place but those needed to be enhanced or that there were no guidelines in place. The Director of People and Change noted that there were clear guidelines in place for officers, and she emphasised the need to continually communicate those to new and existing staff.

3.    A Committee member referred to the register being maintained and reviewed monthly by the HR Governance team with ‘Declared, non-compliant gifts and hospitality […] escalated to HR Business Partners if deemed necessary’ and asked who deemed that necessary. The Director of People and Change explained that if a gift or hospitality offer had been accepted and there did not appear to be a clear manager approval trail in process then the HR Governance team would refer that to a HR Business Partner to liaise with the relevant senior manager to explore what happened; it was a judgement based on the policy.

4.    The Chairman noted that there was a separate policy for Members to declare offers of gifts and hospitality as discussed by the Committee in March 2024, where Members’ declarations were listed, he recalled the declaration threshold was £50 and asked why that was not the case for officers too as it would be simpler. The Director of People and Change noted that reference to an amount was removed from the officer policy, examples were included instead as it was felt to be more relevant such as a small box of chocolates or a bunch of flowers.

5.    A Committee member noted that the policy was pedantic, more work was being created as there was not a minimum amount to declare, that threshold needed to be set over which to declare. The Council is a large organisation and having to declare a bag of sweets worth £2 for example created unnecessary bureaucracy. She noted the need to review the guidelines to be clearer about what is really a gift or hospitality offer, the focus should be on where a gift or hospitality offer is perceived by a member of the public to skew an officer's opinion about the way they were performing their work. The Director of People and Change noted that the comments could be looked at and benchmarking undertaken with other organisations. She noted that the Council’s approach had always been to encourage everybody to declare everything to be open and transparent, other organisations in the public sector took a similar approach.

6.    The Chairman agreed, noting that when looking at Members’ gifts and hospitality register in March, the Leader declared everything even when it was below £50, that needed to be stopped; and he welcomed that benchmarking exercise. The Interim Head of Paid Service acknowledged that the policy needed to be reviewed to remove some of the bureaucracy, he noted that the timing of the gift such as before a big contract is awarded for example, as well as the amount of the gift were important.

7.    A Committee member suggested that it would be simpler and more efficient to have a combined policy for Members and officers, he noted the element of common sense where people know when they should not accept something. The Director of People and Change would liaise with the Monitoring Officer to review the implications and any regulations that apply to Members as opposed to officers.

8.    The Vice-Chairman disagreed with the above suggestion, noting that officers and Members had different responsibilities so the two policies should remain separate. The Interim Director of Law and Governance; Monitoring Officer reiterated that Members and officers had different roles and responsibilities, officers had a contract of employment whilst Members adhered to the Member Code of Conduct.

9.    A Committee member referred to the section on ‘Issues for Consideration’, noting that those were more like factors to consider rather than issues, for example ‘All gifts and hospitality acceptances had manager authorisation.’ The Director of People and Change would consider that for future reports.

RESOLVED:

1.    Reviewed the contents of the Annual Gifts and Hospitality report to satisfy themselves that the governance arrangements are operating effectively; and

2.    Made recommendations for improvement.

Actions/further information to be provided:

1.    A27/24 - The Director of People and Change, Interim Head of Paid Service, and Monitoring Officer will consider the comments made regarding:

a)    a threshold to be set over which officers and employees must declare gifts and hospitality.

b)    to review the guidelines to be clearer about what is really a gift or hospitality offer, focusing on where a gift or hospitality offer is perceived by a member of the public to skew an officer's opinion about the way they were performing their work.

c)    benchmarking to be undertaken with other organisations.

d)    Members’ not having to declare gifts and hospitality offers on the register under the £50 threshold.

e)    removing some of the bureaucracy, considering the timing of the gift and amount.

f)     keeping the officer and employees’ policy separate to Members’ policy or combining the two; to review the implications and any regulations that apply to Members as opposed to officers.

2.    A28/24 - The Director of People and Change will for future reports consider the suggestion that ‘Issues for Consideration’, are more like factors to consider rather than issues.