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March 2012 standards hearing sub committee
On 7 March 2012, the Standards Hearing Sub-Committee of the council determined that Councillor Anood Al-Samerai should be censured as she had breached paragraph 4(a) of the Members’ Code of Conduct and had been reminded of the requirements to keep information confidential.
The Standards Hearing Sub-Committee found that Councillor Al-Samerai had breached to Code of Conduct by disclosing information in an urgent question to the Leader of the Council in relation to the Elephant & Castle regeneration at the council assembly meeting of 20 October 2010. The disclosed information had been given to her in confidence or acquired by her, which she believed, or ought reasonably to have been aware, was of a confidential nature.
The Standards Hearing Sub-Committee considered that whilst there had been a partial disclosure of some information, the terms of the deal between the council and Lend Lease were still confidential and the member had been advised of that directly (notwithstanding the previous disclosure of a sum of money).
Ultimately, the disclosure under paragraph 4 of the Code was not authorised by consent of a person authorised to give it and was not pursuant to a legal requirement, nor for the purpose of taking professional advice, nor in compliance with the reasonable requirements of the authority
In relation to the second allegation that Councillor Al-Samerai failed to have regard to the advice of the monitoring officer in breach of paragraph 7(1)(b) of the Code, the Standards Hearing Sub-Committee found there was no failure to comply with the Code since they accepted the evidence that the subject member had weighed up a range of considerations that were set out in writing and in discussion with others in coming to her decision.
The Standards Hearing Sub-Committee also accepted the advice of the investigating officer as to future actions and proposed that his recommendations are adopted along with an additional requirement that officers should also seek to advise more clearly in advance about the potential consequences of failing to accept or follow their advice.