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Complaint no. LA/ER/112 concerning an alleged contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct by Councillor Danny Devlin of East Renfrewshire Council

1. Complaint number LA/ER/112 alleged a contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct ("the Code") by Councillor Danny Devlin ("the respondent").

2. It was alleged that the respondent had contravened the Code, in particular, the key principles in section 2 of the Code which deal with Leadership and Respect and paragraph 3.16 of the Code which deals with Confidentiality Requirements.

3. The person complaining ("the complainant"), the Chief Executive of East Renfrewshire Council (now retired), alleged that the respondent had breached paragraph 3.16 of the Code by having disclosed or caused to be disclosed a confidential report that had been considered by the Council's Audit Committee. It was alleged that Councillor Devlin who is a member of that Committee took the view that amendments to the draft report made by the Audit Committee constituted an attempt to cover up allegations of fraud and corruption within the Council's Housing and Commercial Operations Department and that he chose to disclose the contents of the confidential draft report at a news conference held jointly with Mr Bruce McFee, MSP for the West of Scotland on Friday 6 August 2004. Also the complainant alleged that the respondent failed to contact the complainant or any other senior officer within the Council to advise them that he intended to proceed with his "joint news conference" and that this constituted a lack of respect to other members of the Council and to the complainant as Chief Executive. Finally with regard to the key principle of leadership it was alleged that the respondent undermined the public's trust and confidence in the integrity of the Council and its councillors in conducting public business.

4. The complainant alleged that Councillor Devlin may have contravened the Code at 3 separate stages. The first of those was when confidential information was supplied to Mr McFee who subsequently made that information public at a press conference which he held at SNP Headquarters in Paisley on 6 August 2004. It was clear that Mr McFee had access to a copy of the Audit Committee's report as he referred to extracts from the report in his press releases prior to and at his press conference. However, there was no evidence that the respondent supplied Mr McFee with this information. The only direct evidence came from the respondent himself who denied having done so and from Mr McFee who in a brief written response confirmed that he had no evidence which would assist in the prosecution of this case and no knowledge of Councillor Devlin breaching the Councillors' Code of Conduct.

5. Turning to the next stage, I was unable to obtain a clear explanation from the respondent as to how he came to be present at the press conference on 6 August 2004. He claimed that he played no active part in the press conference and that he said nothing other than the words "no comment" from time to time. It was unfortunate that no evidence as to what took place at the press conference was available from the Council's Public Relations Manager since although he attended at the press conference and is a member of the National Union of Journalists he was asked to leave by Mr McFee before the press conference began.

6. The third stage at which it was alleged that the respondent might have breached the Code was when he appeared to have spoken to representatives of the press at the conclusion of the press conference. Here the respondent's position was that he spoke to only one journalist from BBC Radio Scotland. Examination of the contents of various other extracts from the press appeared to indicate however that he had made a number of other remarks to journalists in addition to those which he made to the reporter from BBC Radio Scotland.

7. I found no evidence that the respondent supplied Mr McFee with confidential information in the form of a copy of some or all of the Audit Committee's report. As noted above the only direct evidence which was available - which came from the respondent and Mr McFee - was that he did not. With regard to stage 2 there was no evidence that the respondent made any contribution to the press conference on 6 August 2004 other than by his presence there. Finally, although it appeared that the respondent did speak to a number of representatives of the press after the press conference (despite his denial that he did so) examination of what he was alleged to have said disclosed that he added little or nothing to what was by that stage already in the public domain.

8. By attending the press conference and appearing to associate himself with Mr McFee and his remarks some may consider that the respondent acted inappropriately. Likewise, this view may be taken in respect of the respondent's action in speaking to representatives of the press after the press conference (if he did so). I was satisfied however that such actions did not constitute breaches of the Code and I did not consider that the respondent's failure to contact the then Chief Executive or any other senior officer of the Council to advise them that he intended to proceed with his "joint news conference" constituted a lack of respect to other members of the Council, or to the then Chief Executive, to the extent that it amounted to a breach of the key principle of the Code relating to Respect.

9. Having considered the information that arose from my investigation, I concluded that Councillor Danny Devlin had not contravened the Councillors' Code of Conduct.

D Stuart Allan,
Chief Investigating Officer.
Forsyth House
Innova Campus
Rosyth Europarc
Rosyth
Fife
KY11 2UU
18 February 2005