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Complaint no. LA/E/672 concerning an alleged contravention of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct by Councillor Ian Perry of The City of Edinburgh Council

1. Complaint number LA/E/672 alleged a contravention of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct (“the Code”) by Councillor Ian Perry (“the respondent”).

2. It was alleged that the respondent had contravened the Code, in particular, the provisions of section 4 on Registration of Interests.

3. Councillor Alastair Paisley (“the complainant”), alleged that the respondent had failed to register as a financial interest his secondment to Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group, a body which was in receipt of public funding administered through the City of Edinburgh Council.

4. The respondent was employed as a lecturer by Stevenson College, Edinburgh when he applied for, and was appointed to a seconded post as co-ordinator of the Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group.  The aims of this organisation were in broad terms to expand education and training provision in Wester Hailes.  Funding was provided principally by the Council, most recently through the Children and Families Department.  Stevenson College continued to pay the respondent’s salary as a lecturer, being reimbursed by the Council with the addition of a supplementary charge to cover on-costs.   

5. Paragraph 4.1 of the Code requires councillors to ensure that registerable interests are registered when they are elected and whenever their circumstances change.  The respondent had consistently registered an interest under “category one: remuneration” as being employed by Stevenson College, in the post of lecturer.  No interest in relation to the Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group was registered.  The substantive employment status of the respondent had remained that of lecturer at Stevenson College throughout his secondment.  The College continued to pay the respondent’s salary in his lecturer grade.  A formal secondment agreement issued by the College set out the terms of the secondment, and on its termination required the respondent to return to his lecturer post.  The question to be addressed was whether a secondment of this nature was in itself a registerable interest.

6. Paragraph 4.3 of the Code identifies employment, the holding of an office, and the undertaking of any trade, profession or vocation, or any other work as examples of registerable remunerated interests.  The requirements of registration in respect of remunerated interests go further in that paragraph 4.7 of the Code requires the name of the employer, the nature of its business and the nature of the post held in the organisation to be given.  Regarding the name of the employer and its business, the respondent correctly identified the name of his employer and its business.  The College was, in law, his employer and not the Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group.  The nature of the post held in the College organisation was lecturer, and the respondent also correctly identified that in the register of interests.

7. I considered, therefore, that for the purposes of the specific requirements of the Code, the respondent had properly registered his remunerated interests as a lecturer with Stevenson College.

8. I accepted that it could be argued that the respondent’s whole working time was in relation to his responsibilities to the Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group.  That is as it may be, but any registration of his responsibilities in relation to that organisation would have been made (if at all) above and beyond the statutory requirements for the registration of financial – or non-financial – interests.

9. In the event of the Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group coming before the Council as an item of business, the public interest would have been served by requiring the respondent to declare an interest in that organisation and withdrawing from any meeting.

10. The complainant did not cite a specific instance when the Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group had been discussed in Council proceedings, and no evidence was found to identify such an occasion during the currency of the respondent’s secondment other than the meeting on 21 February 2008 when a paper proposing budgetary savings was considered by Council.  On that occasion the respondent duly declared an interest.  I did not consider that the allocation of funds to the overall Children and Families Department budget would give rise to a declarable interest given the lack of specific reference to the Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group, and the relatively small proportion of the overall sum allocated to that Group.

11. As it had a bearing on the complaint, I also considered whether the respondent’s secondment conflicted with the terms of section 31 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 which disqualifies a person from holding office as a councillor if they hold a paid office or employment with that local authority, or in the gift or disposal of that authority.

12. Given the nature of his employment as a lecturer with Stevenson College (seconded to the Western Hailes Education and Training Managers Group), I considered that the post held by the respondent could not be interpreted as employment by, or a paid office in the gift or disposal of, the Council itself, albeit the respondent performed functions on behalf of a body which was principally funded by the authority.  The respondent was not appointed to the secondment as the result of an advertisement or selection procedure undertaken by the Council but by the Wester Hailes Education and Training Managers Group itself.  I noted and concurred with the legal advice given to the respondent by the Council Solicitor in May 1998 that section 31 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 would not have applied to this secondment.

13. Having considered the information that arose from my investigation, I concluded that Councillor Ian Perry had not contravened the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.

D Stuart Allan

Chief Investigating Officer

Forsyth House

Innova Campus

Rosyth Europarc

Rosyth

KY11 2UU

21 May 2008