Monitoring Officer - Print version

All local authorities (apart from parish and town councils) are under a legal duty to have a Monitoring Officer. The Monitoring Officer has a specific duty to ensure that the Council, its officers, and its Elected Councillors, maintain the highest standards of conduct in all they do. The requirement to have a Monitoring Officer and their legal basis is found in Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (as amended).

More information about the responsibilities and working arrangements of the Monitoring Officer is set out in the Monitoring Officer Protocol in part 4E of the Council’s Constitution [/constitution].

The key jobs of the Monitoring Officer include:

• Making sure decisions are made in a lawful and fair way  
• maintaining the constitution  
• supporting the Ethics Committee 
• carrying out investigations into alleged breaches of the Member Code of Conduct  
• helping with access to information 
• providing legal advice to the Council 
• looking into claims of whistleblowing

More information about the Councillor Code of Conduct and how to raise a concern that a councillor may have breached it [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/131/meetings/775/committees/4].

Register of members’ interests

Elected and co-opted Members of the Council must register ‘Disclosable Pecuniary Interests’ (financial interests) under section 30 of the Localism Act 2011 and certain other interests in line with the Council’s Code of Conduct [/downloads/download/723/standards_committee_and_complaints].

Members have to register such interests within 28 days of election or re-election (or appointment or re-appointment for Co-opted Members). If a member finds that they have an unregistered Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in something being discussed at a Council meeting, they must register the interest within 28 days of becoming aware of it.

The register of interests for each councillor [https://edemocracy.coventry.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1] are available on their individual web pages.

If you have any questions about the Register of Members’ Interests, please contact the Monitoring Officer.

Members' declarations of gifts and hospitality

The Ethics Committee review Members' declarations of gifts and hospitality every 6 months. These are published as part of the Ethics Committee agendas [https://edemocracy.coventry.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=161].