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From time to time, members of a council administration and members of a council opposition are not given the same information. A councillor may be seconded with an official who is there to support them but, in some cases, that is not available—opposition councillors are sometimes disadvantaged when trying to understand or be given information, and they have to find their own way through that process. That can be frustrating, and it can lead to a bit of distrust between the councillors and the officials.

There can also be conflict in a joint board involving people from both health boards and the council, with councillors trying to manage both. Officials from the health board and officials from the council do not always see eye-to-eye about what they want out of the process, and the councillor has to walk a tightrope between them and sort out the problems. I can, therefore, see that there might be opportunities for difficulties on other occasions within boards and in other locations. However, it has been good to have you explain where you are in that process, because I think that is the way forward.

My last question is about the reopening of previously closed cases. A number of cases have been reopened, as you touch on in your annual report. Could you provide some more information about why that has happened and what merits the reopening of a previously closed case?

How damaging is the negative publicity about the code? Does it have a reputational impact?

I touched on the role of the monitoring officer when I spoke to Ian Bruce earlier. There needs to be parity of compliance and awareness. Do you find that it is the case across the 32 local authorities that the monitoring officer is aware of the issues around compliance and is supportive when it comes to people’s awareness of what is required? My political party had the opportunity to meet you recently—I am quite pleased that I instigated that meeting in some way. It is good for us to do that sort of thing but there is also a role for the compliance and monitoring officer in a council to do something similar.

Thank you, convener. Good morning, Ian—it is good to see you.

The code of conduct is probably now embedded in how councils, councillors and officials operate. In your report this year, about 40 complaints come from either councillors or council officers, and about 44 complaints are about disrespect or discourtesy during a council meeting or a board meeting. Individuals are aware of the working parameters and so are officials or officers, but there is a role for the local authority monitoring officer in the process, and it would be good to get a feeling from you of what you think about that role.

We now have a standard of way of working. There are parameters that officials and councillors need to work within, and the monitoring officer is there to ensure that they do that. You have said that some councils are a bit more toxic and more challenging, depending on their make-up and the way they operate as a council, and that not all councils are doing the same thing. It would be good to get a flavour of what you think the role of the monitoring officer is and how it helps—or maybe does not help. Maybe the role creates some issues within a council.

There is still a relatively small number of complaints by council officers about councillors, but we have seen a slight increase in the number.

Okay—thank you.

You have already touched on negative press about the code, and you have talked about the work of the code and surveying it. Authorities provide training for councillors, through the monitoring officer, and political groups also try to give them guidance—a group leader or deputy leader will try to support their council colleagues if they need it. There may well even be an internal appraisal system within the council group as to how councillors are performing or behaving, to manage the behaviour or ability to progress of anyone who may need more training.

You have talked about the surveys you have done in the past and the one you are planning to do in the future. It would be good to get a flavour of what you see the survey attempting to do. Will it try to ascertain whether there is a knowledge gap, or will it try to find out whether there are areas for improvement that need to be re-examined to ensure that there is a transparency when it comes to understanding the code?

One thing that has an impact on training is the time that is taken up by the process of dealing with, for example, a breach of the code, as people know that it could be some time before there is a resolution. People might be put off if they think that it will take two or three years for the case to come to a resolution, so there is no point in engaging in training, as things will have moved on. Alternatively, they might still feel that they want some kind of action at the end of that process. How do you address that?

Could the detailed components of the wellbeing definition be considered as being covered through existing human rights laws and frameworks? There are already frameworks. Do we need different ones, because we are marrying the two together?

Good morning. I want to tease out some answers from you on the alignment of the definitions. Why was a choice made to align the definition of wellbeing in the bill with

“individuals, families and other groups within society”?