Democracy in Crawley

How decisions are made and who represents you

Code of Conduct

What is the Code of Conduct?

Every Council is required to adopt a Code of Conduct that sets out the rules governing the behaviour of its councillors. All elected and co-opted members of the Council are covered by the Code.

There are also local protocols associated with the Code of Conduct covering the following:

  • Councillor/employee relations
  • Planning matters
  • Gifts and hospitality

The Code of Conduct and these protocols can be found in the Council’s Constitution

Complaints and Investigations

The Council’s Monitoring Officer is responsible for considering any complaint that a councillor has breached the Code of Conduct. Any person can make a complaint that a councillor or co-opted member* has breached the Code of Conduct.

*A co-opted member is a voting member of the authority or one of its committees who was appointed to their position rather than elected.

Please note that the Monitoring Officer can only consider complaints about the behaviour of individual councillors, not about the authority as a whole, or the people employed by it.

The address for complaints is on the form above. Alternatively, you can email democratic.services@crawley.gov.uk

The Independent Persons

The Council has appointed Independent Persons Mr Peter Nicolson and Russell Brown, under the Provisions of the Localism Act 2011.

The functions of the Independent Persons are:

  • The Independent Persons must be consulted by the authority before it makes a decision whether to investigate an allegation that a councillor or co-opted member has breached the Code of Conduct
  • The Independent Persons may be consulted by the Council in respect of a complaint that a councillor has breached the Code of Conduct
  • The Independent Persons may be consulted by a councillor who is subject to an allegation that they have breached the Code of Conduct

The Monitoring Officer

The Monitoring Officer has a number of statutory functions governing local investigations into Member conduct. Crawley Borough Council’s Monitoring Officer is Siraj Choudhury, Head of Governance, People & Performance.

The Monitoring Officer is required to prepare a report to Council where it appears that the authority has or is about to do anything which would be in contravention of the law or which would constitute maladministration.

Before publishing any report, the Monitoring Officer has a duty to consult with the Cabinet and the Chief Finance Officer. Depending upon whether or not the function concerned is an executive one, the report has to be considered either by Full Council or by the Cabinet and the publication of the report has the effect of suspending the proposed action pending consideration of the report.