Members' gifts and hospitality protocol

1. Meaning of gifts and hospitality

(a) The expressions 'gifts' and 'hospitality' have wide and evolving meanings and no conclusive definition is either possible or desirable.

(b) Red bridge Council shall interpret gifts and hospitality to include:

Gifts of any goods or services;
The opportunity to acquire any goods or services freely or at a discount or other terms not available to the general public;
The offer of food, drink, accommodation or entertainment or the opportunity to attend any cultural or sporting event on terms not available to the general public.

(c) Where the gift or hospitality has an estimated value in excess of £25 (in accordance with Paragraph 5 of this Protocol), it must be registered using the proforma appended to this protocol. Where the gift or hospitality has an estimated value below £25, you should consider whether declaration would be appropriate in the circumstances.

(d) When considering whether to declare, you should:

define gifts and hospitality widely; and
ask yourself "would I have been given this if I was not a member of the Council"? and "what was in the mind of the giver"?; and
always register a gift or hospitality (subject to financial limits) if it could be seen as something given because of your position.

(e) If you are in doubt as to the motive behind a gift or hospitality, it is recommended that you register it or speak to the Monitoring Officer.

(f) You do not need to register gifts and hospitality which are not related to your

role as a Member, such as Christmas gifts from your friends and family.

2. General caution

(a) The fundamental principle must always be that any offer of a gift or hospitality

should be treated with great care and carefully considered.

(b) Your prime duty as a Member is to ensure that there is no conflict of interest in

the performance of your duties.

personal reputation and that of the Council can be seriously jeopardised by the

inappropriate acceptance by you of a gift or hospitality.

(d) You should consider carefully all the circumstances surrounding the offer of a gift or hospitality, including:

the scale
amount of the offer
potential frequency
the source

(e) Also be sensitive to the timing of the offer in relation, for example, to decisions which the Council may be taking, affecting those making the offer.

(f) You should usually avoid hospitality in situations where you would be the sole guest or at the least treat such situations with particular care.

3. Member's decision

(a) The decision for you in every case is whether or not it is appropriate to accept any gift or hospitality that might be offered to you, having regard to how it might be perceived by an ordinary member of the public.

(b) The rules within this protocol do not cover every circumstance as to what is appropriate or inappropriate.

(c) To refuse may cause misunderstanding or offence. However to accept may give rise to questions of impropriety or conflict of interest, which are likely to be of more significance to you when making your decision.

(d) When you need to decide whether to accept hospitality, you must ask yourself some basic questions, for example:

is there a benefit to the Council in accepting the invitation?
is the entertainment lavish?
are you accepting too much hospitality from the same source?
whether just your attendance at an event might be open to interpretation as a signal of support?

In any case of doubt, advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer (The Assistant Director - Assurance is the Council's statutory Monitoring Officer)

4. Requirements

(a) You must Register, the receipt of any gifts or hospitality with an estimated value of £25 or more, which are received and accepted by you (You may have to estimate the value of the gifts or hospitality):

in the conduct of the business of the Council, or
the business of the office to which you have been elected; or
appointed or when you are acting as a representative of the Council.

(b) You must also register the source of the gift or hospitality.

(d) If you are dealing with Council business at a meeting (or otherwise) where the donor of the gift or hospitality is affected, you need to consider whether to make a declaration of the gift or hospitality to the meeting for the purpose of complete transparency. Declaration will not mean that you cannot participate in the Council business; however, you may consider it appropriate not to participate depending on the circumstances.

(e) Where any gift (no matter the value) is accepted, it may be advisable (depending on the circumstances) to inform the donor that acceptance will not confer any advantage for that donor in his/her dealings with the Council.

5. Series of gifts or hospitality adding up to £25 or more in value

(a) If you receive:

a gift or hospitality; or
a series of gifts or hospitality from the same source that add up to £25 or more, then this must be registered on the Register of Interests as an accumulation in a municipal year.

(b) You may have to estimate the value of the gifts or hospitality.

6. Gifts and hospitality below the £25 threshold

You can still register any gift or hospitality you receive which you estimate to be below the £25 threshold should you consider that in all the circumstances this would be appropriate and in your best interests.

7. What to avoid

(a) In deciding whether it is appropriate to accept any gift or hospitality, you may want to apply the following principles:

do not accept a gift or hospitality as an inducement or reward for anything you do as a Member. If you have any suspicion that the motive behind the gift or hospitality is an inducement or reward, you must decline it. 'Reward' includes remuneration, reimbursement and fee;
do not accept a gift or hospitality of significant value or whose value is excessive in all the circumstances;
do not accept a gift or hospitality if you believe it will put you under any obligation to the provider as a consequence;
do not solicit any gift or hospitality and avoid giving any perception of doing so;
be very cautious in accepting a gift or hospitality, if acceptance might be open to misinterpretation e.g. from persons in litigation with the Council, bidding for work from the Council or applying for any sort of license or consent.

(b) It is a criminal offence to corruptly to solicit or receive any gift, reward or advantage as an inducement to doing or forbearing to do anything in respect of any transaction involving the Council. It is therefore particularly important that great caution is exercised in receiving any hospitality or gifts from contractors of the Council.

(c) Cash or monetary gifts should always be refused without exception and the refusal notified to the Monitoring Officer.

(d) It is a well-established and recognised rule that no Councillor or other public servant should accept gifts, hospitality, or services from anyone, which would or might appear to place him/her under an obligation.

8. Mayor

(a) There are no special rules for those who serve as Mayor.

(b) However, gifts that are clearly made to the Authority, for example a commemorative goblet which is kept on display in the Authority's offices, do not need to be registered in the member's register of gifts and hospitality. However, such gifts ought to be recorded by the Authority for audit purposes. Although the Mayor may attend many social functions the office holder is not exempt from the requirement to register hospitality.

(c) Where the Mayor is invited to social functions or gifted with presents in the capacity of the "Mayor" he/she will not be required to register the gifts or hospitality received/accepted in this role. Where the Member acting as Mayor, receives any gifts or hospitality in his/her capacity of a Member, there is a requirement to register such gifts and hospitality. The question a Member needs to ask themselves is "Would I have received this hospitality even if I were not the Mayor?" If the answer is yes then it must be registered.

9. Gifts and hospitality declined

There is no requirement to register gifts and hospitality offered but declined. However, cash or monetary gifts that are declined should, as indicated in 7 (c) above, be notified to the Monitoring Officer. In addition, as a matter of good practice, it would be advisable to inform the Monitoring Officer particularly if they are of value. When gifts or hospitality are declined, the person making the offer or should be courteously but firmly informed of the procedures and standards operating within the Council, which prevent the gift or hospitality from being accepted.

10. Bribery

What is Bribery?

Bribery is defined as giving someone a financial or other advantage to encourage that person to perform their functions or activities improperly or to reward that person for having already done so. In other words bribery is an inducement or reward offered, promised or provided to gain personal, commercial, regulatory or contractual advantage.

The Bribery Act

The Bribery Act 2010 ('the Act') came into force in July 2011. It was introduced to update and enhance UK law on bribery including foreign bribery.

The Act contains four substantive criminal offences, which are:

bribing another person;
receiving a bribe;
bribing a foreign public official; and
a corporate offence of a commercial organisation failing to prevent bribery.

The Act applies across the UK, covers the private and public sectors and relates to any function of a public nature, or any activity connected with a business, performed in the course of employment, or performed on behalf of an organisation.

The Act extends to employees, members, agents and subsidiaries of the organisation and can also include contractors to the extent that they perform services for or on behalf of the organisation. It is less likely to include sub-contractors.

The scope of the last of the four offences is considerable. However, an organisation can provide a defence to it by showing it had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery from taking place (see below for what constitutes 'adequate procedures').

Penalties for falling foul of the Act for individuals can be severe with 7-10 years imprisonment in the worst case scenario. Organisations which fail to take all reasonable steps to prevent bribery taking place face unlimited fines.

Member Responsibilities

The prevention, detection and reporting of bribery and other forms of corruption are the responsibility of all those working for the council or under its control. All members (and staff) are required to avoid activity that breaches the provisions of the Act.

This responsibility manifests itself in the council's Code of Conduct for Members which requires councillors to behave in a manner which is consistent with a number of principles including:-

the principle of 'Integrity' in that holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their official duties; and
the principle of 'objectivity' namely that in carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards or benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit.

It is a criminal offence for a person corruptly to give or offer any gift, reward or advantage as an inducement or reward to you for doing or forbearing to do anything as a member of the Council.

If in the course of their duties someone approaches a member with a view to influencing the outcome of a project, procurement or decision you must immediately report to the Monitoring Officer any circumstances where an inappropriate gift or hospitality has been offered to you. You may thereafter be required to assist the Poli in providing evidence.

Similarly, if a member receives information that an act of bribery has taken place they should take the same steps.

Your feedback is important to us
Help us improve our service