To receive and, if so determined, to agree as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 5 November 2014.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the meeting held on 5^th November 2014 be approved as correct records and signed by the Chairman.

Members to give notice of any interest and the nature of that interest relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct.

No declarations were made by members.

To receive a presentation from the Director of Legal and Democratic Services.

The Committee received a report and presentation from the Head of Legal (Community). The presentation gave a brief introduction, listed the benefits and weaknesses of the different forms of Social Media and covered the legal issues that can arise from using social media incorrectly. The main issues highlighted were libel, copyright infringement, data protection, bias/pre-determination, obscene material and breach of the code of conduct.

The committee discussed the presentation and made the following suggestions for additional content;

·         The use of privacy settings on Social Media.

·         To highlight the dangers of  posting whilst intoxicated /emotional.

·         To add additional forms of social media to the presentation such as snap chat, Instagram and YouTube.

·         To remind Councillors about the obligations of acting/or giving the impression that they are acting in their official capacity

RESOLVED:

1)    That the presentation be noted; and

2)    The   presentation is amended in line with the suggestions of the committee members.

3)    The Chairman, Monitoring Officer and Head of Legal Services (Community) meet to agree a strategy for all councillors to access the presentation.

4)    For an electronic copy of the presentation to be sent to all councillors.

5)    For the presentation to be made a part of the induction of councillors.

To receive an oral update from the Director of Legal & Democratic Services / Monitoring Officer on significant local Standards issues, if any.

The Monitoring Officer informed the committee that guidance around publicity during the PURDA period was to be sent out to members.

The Chairman thanked the members for being part of the committee over the past year and wished the members who were standing all the best in the forthcoming elections.