Last case under old local government standards regime comes to an end

What could be the final case under the old local government standards regime is understood to have come to a conclusion.

The case related to an interview given by Cllr Peter Golds, a Conservative member of Tower Hamlets Council, for a Channel 4 Dispatches programme in March 2010.

Complaints were subsequently made in November 2011 alleging that Cllr Golds had disclosed confidential information about the local authority’s assistant chief executive, who was forced to resign shortly after the programme.

Tower Hamlets’ standards assessment sub-committee received an investigator’s report in June 2012 that claimed there had been breaches of the Code.

With the local authority’s powers to impose sanctions on councillors due to be abolished by the Localism Act, the sub-committee asked the First-Tier Tribunal to accept a referral of the case so it could impose sanctions.

The FTT rejected this request, saying the report showed that most of the confidential information had already been published. It also said that even if the case were proven, it would not impose a sanction justifying a referral.

Tower Hamlets sought to appeal to the Upper Tribunal. However, it subsequently asked the UT for consent to withdraw the appeal two days before the hearing.

This followed a skeleton argument from barrister Richard Harwood of 39 Essex Street, acting pro bono for Cllr Golds.

It is understood that Tower Hamlets accepted that the UT had no jurisdiction to hear the authority’s appeal. The Upper Tribunal agreed. As there had been no referral of the standards complaint to the FTT before 1 July 2012, the council was now too late to do so.