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Complaint Number LA/C/60 concerning an alleged contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct by Councillor Keith Brown, Councillor William Douglas, Councillor Craig Holden of Clackmannan Council

1. Complaint numbers LA/C/60A, LA/C/60B and LA/C/60C were lodged by the Chief Executive, on behalf of Clackmannan Council, following a formal decision of the Council on 7 January 2004. The complainants are Councillors Janet Cadenhead, William Calder, Eddie Carrick, Kenneth Earle, Brian Fearon, George Matchett, Bobby Magill, Sam Owens, Margaret Paterson and Provost Derek Stewart, the ten Labour members of the Council together with Councillor Alastair Campbell, the Conservative member and Councillor Joe Kazemi, the Independent member, all of whom voted to refer the complaint to the Standards Commission.

2. The complaint is against Councillors Keith Brown, William Douglas and Craig Holden ("the respondents") who are also elected members of Clackmannan Council and represent the SNP group on the Council.

3. Two of the respondents had attended the early meetings of the Strategic Task Group ("the STG") which was a Group set up by the Council to consider the replacement and refurbishment of secondary schools in Clackmannan. The substance of the complaint is that, as members of the STG, the respondents had given an undertaking that they would treat the deliberations of the STG in confidence and that any information would only be issued by officers of the Council but that by issuing a press release on 16 September 2003 containing information about the site of the proposed new secondary school in Alloa the respondents broke that confidence and by doing so breached the Councillors' Code of Conduct.

4. The collective response of the respondents is that they had reservations about:

- size of their Party's representation on the STG and on the absence of parent and pupil representation;
- brevity of the proposed consultation period with parents;
- unwillingness of the STG to increase its size to include elected members whose wards would be affected by the Group's proposals; and
- undue and unnecessary secrecy attaching to the deliberations of the STG.

5. The respondents are unanimous in their view that, because of these reservations, they never at any time gave an undertaking to treat the business of the STG as confidential and, therefore, that the issue of their press release was not a breach of confidentiality or of the Councillors' Code of Conduct.

6. In considering the complaint the key issue was whether a clear commitment had been sought and secured, from the two respondents who attended the early meetings of the STG, to keep the business of the STG confidential and to leave the release of information to officers of the Council.

7. The written and oral evidence taken from a range of officers and members and from the respondents was conflicting. In view of this the minutes of the STG were examined to determine whether they would be of assistance in evaluating and clarifying the opposing positions. Unfortunately there was insufficient detail and clarity in the minutes to establish the nature and extent of any commitment sought and secured from members of the Group in general or from the SNP members in particular. In this situation it has not been possible to clarify the division between the two bodies of evidence.

8. Having regard to the preceding paragraph, and on the basis of the information available to me, I have been unable to establish whether any clear commitment was secured by the STG from the SNP representatives who attended the first three meetings of the STG, particularly in respect of the information referred to in the press release. I am, therefore, unable to reach a finding that there was a breach of confidentiality by Councillors Brown, Douglas and Holden and I have to conclude, therefore, that they have not breached the Councillors' Code of Conduct.

D Stuart Allan,
Chief Investigating Officer.
Forsyth House
Innova Campus
Rosyth Europarc
Rosyth
Fife
KY11 2UU
25 August 2004