Conference Agenda Oct 2021 PRINT - Flipbook - Page 13
Notification of hearings
staff - other provisions allow the Manager to delegate
administration to another member of staff). If
notification of date and venue has been made prior to
three weeks by whatever means then the Complaints
Manager should notify the parties again of the date,
venue and time within three weeks. The notification
may otherwise not be valid.
SN asked:
1.
Is the decision by Disciplinary Committee to notify
parties of hearing dates and venues direct rather than
the Complaints Manager notifying them valid, or is it a
contravention of Standing Orders for Party Discipline
and the Complaints Manager role?
2.
Where a notification of date and location (zoom) of DC
hearing is made to a respondent with 3 weeks + 1 day
notice, but the time is not given; does that constitute
sufficient notice as per SOPD 5.2?
The Chair of the Committee had advised SN as follows. “To
ensure there’s no risk of a cancelled hearing in future we
decided that DC would notify the parties to hearings. If
that notification is copied to you, you can be assured that
the required notification has been made.”
SOPD as revised at Spring Conference 2021 says:
5.1 The Complaints Manager must liaise with the
Committee Chair to arrange the date, time and
place for the Committee to convene to consider
the complaint. The venue for the Committee
meeting must meet the accessibility and any
other additional needs of Committee members,
Complainants, Respondents and any supporting
members
5.2 The date should be no later than three calendar
months from the receipt of the complaint by the
Complaints Manager. The Complaints Manager
will send at least three weeks’ prior notification
of the date, time and place of the meeting to the
Complainant and the Respondent.
SOPD 6.9 Where the complaint brought by the Complaints
Manager has originated in information being brought to
their attention by another member (the Complainant), the
Chair of the Committee may invite the Complainant to also
attend the meeting at which the complaint is considered
and give evidence to that meeting.
SOC ruling:
1.
2.
The decision by Disciplinary Committee is a
contravention of Standing Orders 5.1 and 5.2 as
(a) it is the Complaints Manager who should advise
parties and (b) the Complaints Manger must liaise
with the Committee Chair and a notification from
the Committee Chair to the manager after the date
and venue has been set by the Committee does not
constitute liaison.
SOPD 5.1 and 5.2 clearly state that the time of the
hearing must be given at least three weeks in advance
and by the Complaints Manager (or their delegated
3.
The only provision for direct contact between the
Committee Chair and a Complainant is in SOPD 6.9
which is a separate provision for the Chair to invite a
member on whose information the complaint is being
brought by the Complaint Manager, to attend the
hearing in lieu of or as well as the Complaint Manager.
Links between DC and DRC
On April 19th 2021 SOC were asked for a ruling on
whether close links between DC and DRC were in
conformity with Standing Orders for Party Discipline. While
this was a general concern the specific context related to
queries from Complainant and Respondent in an active
investigation asking why an elected member of DRC was
acting as a ‘supernumerary investigator’ for DC and taking
minutes at a DC meeting.
SOC confirm that Disputes Resolution Committee (DRC)
is independent of all other party bodies as is made clear
in the Constitution, a requirement confirmed by this
committee in its response to a ruling request from Tom
Harris accepted by Autumn Conference 2015:
“Section 18. ii of the Constitution outlines that members
of the Disputes Resolution Committee (DRC) cannot be
officers of the Green Party. Officers of the Green Party
is not a formally outlined term within the rest of the
constitution. In light of the fairly lengthy nature of the rest
of the list of post holders excluded from membership of
DRC, SOC consider that this final part should be interpreted
broadly as a catch all for positions at a national level, and it
should include membership of the disciplinary committee.”
The independence of DRC was confirmed at Spring
Conference 2021 which removed the Co-ordinator of DRC
from the Disputes and Complaints Referral Group (DCRG).
SOC confirmed in a ruling to Autumn Conference 2020 in
response to a request from EJ that
“because DC is governed by the Standing Orders for Party
Discipline, it must comply with those Standing Orders as
only Green Party Conference can agree upon changes to
them.”
In response to the points raised as part of the specific
context:
While it is not explicitly stated that investigators are
members of DC, no alternative source of investigators
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