Complaint number LA/EA/833 concerning alleged contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct by Councillor Helen Coffey of East Ayrshire Council

• Introduction
• Outline of the Complaint and Response
• The Investigation
• Consideration of the Evidence
• Findings and Conclusion

Introduction

1.1 Complaint number LA/EA/833 alleges a contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct (“the Code”). The Code was issued by the Scottish Ministers in terms of section 1 of the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. ( Scotland ) Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”) and came into effect on 1 May 2003.

1.2 The complaint has been lodged by Mr David J Meechan (“the complainant”) who alleges a contravention of the Code by Councillor Helen Coffey (“the respondent”). The respondent is an elected member of East Ayrshire Council (“the Council”).

1.3 It is alleged that the respondent has contravened the Councillors' Code of Conduct, and, in particular, paragraphs 4.2, 4.3, 4.7 and 4.9 (Registration of Interests: Remuneration), which are as follows:-

“4.2 Regulations [1] made by Scottish Ministers describe the detail and timescale for registering interests. It is your personal responsibility to comply with these regulations and you should review regularly and at least once a year your personal circumstances. Annex B contains key definitions and explanatory notes to help you decide what is required when registering your interests under any particular category. The interests which require to be registered are those set out in the following paragraphs and relate to you. It is not necessary to register the interests of your spouse, or cohabitee.

Category One: Remuneration

4.3 You have a registerable interest where you receive remuneration by virtue of being:

• employed;
• self-employed;
• the holder of an office;
• a director of an undertaking;
• a partner in a firm; or
• undertaking a trade, profession or vocation, or any other work.

4.7 When registering employment, you must give the name of the employer, the nature of its business and the nature of the post held in the organisation.

4.9 Where you otherwise undertake a trade, profession or vocation, or any other work, the detail to be given is the nature of the work and its regularity. For example, if you write for a newspaper, you must give the name of the publication and the frequency of articles for which you are paid.”

1.4 The respondent has signed a declaration of acceptance of the office of councillor under the Local Authorities (Councillors) (Declaration of Acceptance of Office) ( Scotland ) Order 1990, as amended, in terms of which the respondent has undertaken to meet the requirements of the Councillors' Code of Conduct in the performance of her functions in that office. The declaration is dated 4 May 2007.

1.5 For the purpose of this investigation, I was assisted by Mr Douglas Winchester , Investigating Officer.

1.6 This report has been prepared for submission to the Standards Commission for Scotland in terms of section 14(2) of the 2000 Act. The report was submitted in draft form to the respondent for any representations. Details of the representations received and the extent to which the representations have been accepted or otherwise are set out in Annexes A and B. No material amendments have been made to the report as its contents have been accepted in their entirety by the respondent.

[1] For the purposes of this complaint, the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. ( Scotland ) Act 2000 (Register of Interests) Regulations 2003 as amended apply. They prescribe that it is the duty of any councillor to submit details of registerable interests within one month of having made the declaration of acceptance of office and to submit any amendments to these registerable interests to the relevant council officer within one month of any change to the information.

Outline of the Complaint and Response

The Complaint

2.1 The complaint is set out in a letter from the complainant which is attached as Appendix A . The complainant alleges that the respondent failed to declare a registerable interest in that she has received remuneration from employment as a Parliamentary Assistant to her brother Willie Coffey MSP. He further alleges that such a failure on her part has compromised her position as an elected representative.

The Response

2.2 The response is set out in two letters from the respondent and is attached as Appendix B . The respondent alleges that as soon as the matter was drawn to her attention she made the appropriate declaration. She considers the complaint to be politically motivated.

The Investigation

3.1 To establish the background to the complaint, the Investigating Officer sought and received information from the Council.

3.2 Having considered the clear documentary evidence and the written submissions made, the Investigating Officer took the view that the facts of the matter were not in any material dispute. He interviewed the respondent on 27 April 2009.

Consideration of the Evidence

4.1 Councillor Helen Coffey (SNP) has been a Councillor since a by-election in May 2006. She was re-elected following the local government elections on 3 May 2007. She is currently one of the elected representatives in the North Kilmarnock multi-member ward. The political composition of the Council consists of SNP (14), Labour (14), Conservative (3) and Independent (1). The SNP Group on the Council currently forms a minority Administration.

4.2 Following the May 2007 election, the respondent completed her first notice of interests for the Council's Register of Interests on 30 May 2007 which is shown as Appendix C. Under the category “Remuneration”, she stated she had no such interest.

4.3 In or around November 2008, there was some media publicity about the fact that a number of Members of the Scottish Parliament employed family members as Parliamentary/Political Assistants for which they were paid. The respondent was reported as being employed by her brother, Mr Willie Coffey MSP. (Mr Coffey is also an elected councillor for East Ayrshire Council in the same North Kilmarnock multi-member ward as the respondent.)

4.4 On 4 December 2008, the respondent amended her original notice in the Register of Interests of 30 May 2007 by a further notice in the form of an e-mail to declare her employment. The amended entry by way of a further notice is made under the category “Remuneration” and states “Parliamentary Assistant with the Scottish Parliament for Willie Coffey MSP”; the further notice is attached as Appendix D.

4.5 The respondent has confirmed that her employment by her brother commenced on 23 July 2007. The employment is part-time as an office assistant for 25 hours per week and is remunerated. In terms of the Regulations, this employment should have been registered within one month of taking up the post. She advises that the circumstances of her amending the Register of Interests on 4 December 2008 arose as a result of an informal conversation with several colleagues when it occurred to her that her Register of Interests did not contain any record of her employment.

4.6 The Council's Monitoring Officer has confirmed that as part of the Council's training arrangements for elected members following the election in May 2007, all councillors were invited to a training session on the Code. The respondent did not attend. (He has also advised that following the respondent's election in 2006, it had been planned to offer individual training to her on the Code and other matters but there is no record of this having been done.) He has advised that the respondent has from time to time sought advice on various aspects of the Code (e.g. planning matters) and in such instances has always demonstrated a general willingness to conduct herself in full compliance. It is his considered assessment that this matter has arisen through simple inadvertence on the respondent's part. The interest represented her first and only employment registerable interest so she had no prior experience of the procedure. He also considers that the respondent did not deliberately seek to conceal that she provided administrative support to her brother as an MSP as it was generally known this was the case. (The Monitoring Officer indicates, however, that he did not know this took the form of paid employment.)

Findings and Conclusion

5.1 The complainant alleges that Councillor Helen Coffey contravened the Councillors' Code of Conduct, as outlined in paragraphs 1.3 and 2.1 of this Report.

5.2 The complaint alleges that the respondent failed to declare a registerable interest in that she has received remuneration from employment as a Parliamentary Assistant to her brother Willie Coffey MSP. The complaint further alleges that such a failure on the respondent's part has compromised her position as an elected representative.

5.3 There is no material dispute about the facts of this matter. The respondent is an elected member of East Ayrshire Council having been re-elected in the May 2007 local government elections. She signed her declaration of acceptance of office on 4 May 2007 and submitted her first notice of her registerable interests on 30 May 2007; no interests were recorded under the category “Remuneration”. The respondent commenced remunerated employment as a Parliamentary Assistant to her brother Willie Coffey MSP on 23 July 2007. In terms of the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (Register of Interests) Regulations 2003, as amended, information (of the nature and detail prescribed in paragraphs 4.3 to 4.11 of the Code) in relation to the respondent's employment fell to be registered within one month of the changing circumstances relating to remuneration, that is, no later than 24 August 2007. Until 4 December 2008, the respondent's Register of Interests kept by the Council and publicly available did not disclose that she had any remunerated employment. There was therefore a time lag of some fifteen months between commencing that employment and declaring it. As a consequence, the respondent was in breach of paragraphs 4.2 and 4.3 of the Councillors' Code of Conduct and of regulation 5 of the 2003 Regulations by failing timeously to give a further notice to the proper officer of the Council setting out the details in the change of her registerable interests relating to remuneration.

5.4 The matter of registration of interests is a central component of the Code and was a key consideration by the Scottish Parliament in setting up the ethical standards framework to seek to maintain high standards in public life. The Code makes clear that the obligation to register employment interests is a fundamental obligation on all councillors.

5.5 As regards the suggestion by the complainant that the respondent, by being in the paid employment of her brother has compromised her position as an elected representative to properly represent her constituents' interests, the Monitoring Officer of the Council is clear that there was no deliberate concealment of the fact that she provided assistance to her brother. In addition it has to be noted that the respondent and her brother are both councillors representing the same political party with a mutuality of interest in promoting the interests of the same Council ward. Nevertheless, she did fail to disclose the fact that her position in her brother's office was remunerated.

5.6 It should be noted that the respondent has, in her letter of 19 May 2009 (Annex A), accepted in full my report on this matter. She has cooperated with my investigations to the fullest extent and there is no evidence before me that her failure to declare the necessary interest constituted a deliberate course of conduct on her part. In her letter she invites the Commission to dispense with a full public hearing and to decide the matter by written submissions. The disposal of the case is entirely in the discretion of the Commission; whilst I consider a hearing should be held, if the Commission were minded to consider a hearing by written submissions I, for my interests, would be content to consent.

5.7 In relation to complaint no. LA/EA/833 alleging that that the respondent failed to declare a registerable interest in that she has received remuneration from employment, I have come to the conclusion that, having regard to the findings in section 5 and in particular paragraphs 5.3 to 5.5 of this Report, Councillor Helen Coffey has contravened the Councillors' Code of Conduct.

D Stuart Allan

Chief Investigating Officer

Forsyth House

Innova Campus

Rosyth Europarc

Rosyth

KY11 2UU

02 June 2009