All Councils are required by law to promote and maintain high standards of ethical behaviour. Central to this duty is having a code of conduct that all councillors in its area must sign up to and against which their conduct can be held to account. 

Each council must also have a process for administering, investigating and deciding on allegations that a councillor has acted in breach of that code. In Milton Keynes, the responsibility for promoting good ethical behaviour and overseeing the process for dealing with allegations against councillors, including allegations against parish councillors, falls to the Standards Committee. 

The Standards Committee comprises 9 to 15 Milton Keynes City Council (MKCC) ward councillors and up to 3 co-opted nonvoting parish councillors. The Chair of the Committee rotates between Political Groups each year.  

Working closely with the Council’s Monitoring Officer, Sharon Bridglalsingh, the Standards Committee deals with allegations that the conduct of an MKCC ward councillor, a Parish or Town Councillor in the Milton Keynes area is in breach of the Code of Conduct.  This is a very specific category of complaint and does not cover general complaints about the Council which are dealt with via a separate process. 

Another way that the Committee promotes good ethical behaviour is to provide training to all councillors including tailored sessions for the Councillors on the Standards Committee.  The Councillor Code of Conduct for Milton Keynes City Council is in Chapter 4 of the Council’s Constitution. 

Codes of Conduct which apply to each Parish and Town Councils are normally found on that Council’s website or by contacting the particular Parish or Town Council.  You can also contact Kehinde Awojobi, or Peter Brown, the Council’s Deputy Monitoring Officers if you want any more information on this topic.  Milton Keynes City Council prides itself on having high standards of behaviour from its Councillors and the Standards Committee will take action when it considers behaviour falls below that which is expected.