Tower Hamlets Council is set to review its Councillor Code of Conduct and implement a political mentoring program, following discussions at the Standards Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday, 10 July 2025.
The review and mentoring programme are part of a broader effort to improve council operations, addressing issues raised in a best value inspection and the subsequent statutory support package from the government. The Best Value failings were around Culture; Partnerships; Governance; Leadership and Continuous Improvement.
The committee comprises 5 elected members of the Council (not including the Mayor or more than 1 Cabinet member), plus up to 5 independent co-opted members. The co-opted members are entitled to vote at meetings. The Standards Advisory Committee (SAC) is chaired by an independent co-opted member. Current members include:
Co-optees:
- John Pulford MBE
- Michael Houston
- Fiona Browne
- Elizabeth Marshall
- Faham Sinan-Katamba
Councillors:
- Councillor Iqbal Hossain
- Councillor Abu Chowdhury
- Councillor Harun Miah
- Councillor Shubo Hussain
- Councillor Sirajul Islam
The review comes amidst concerns about member behaviour and a desire to ensure high ethical standards within the council.
The committee received a Report on Members' Code of Conduct Matters which provided an overview of complaints and investigations related to alleged breaches of the code. According to the report, there had been 11 new complaints since the last update on 3 April 2025. Nine of these complaints were made before 30 April 2025, and two were made since 1 May 2025. The specific breaches are detailed in Appendix 1 of the report. The report also indicates that officers agreed to explore adding expected timescales to relevant steps of the Code of Conduct procedures, and whether there should be specific rules around vexations complaints or complainants, following the minutes of the previous meeting on Thursday 3 April 2025. A more detailed review of the Code of Conduct should wait until the government reported on their wider Review.
As part of the broader effort to improve council operations, the Standards Advisory Committee discussed the Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP). A key component of the CIP is a political mentoring programme for members. Phase 1 of the political mentoring project is underway and anticipated to complete in late-Summer 2025. Phase 2 is expected to begin in October 2025.
The ministerial directions state:
Prepare and agree with the Board a fully costed programme of political mentoring for members with resources allocated accordingly.
The council aims to create:
- A clear framework and expectations for member behaviour.
- Mandatory training to support behavioural change.
- Review and development of the council's systems and processes to manage member behaviour.
- Bespoke support and external challenge.
- Enhanced mentoring programme.
The government envoys have set clear expectations that the outcomes of the political mentoring project must be co-designed with elected members.
The Standards Advisory Committee and the Best Value Improvement Plan states that the activities and costings to support the Political Mentoring Programme, is fully funded as part of a multi-million pound support package for best value improvement in the MTFS. The specific costs are:
- Develop framework: April 2025, £40,000 resourcing costs (PT GL)
- Enhanced, bespoke, universal mentoring and coaching programme: April – July 2025, £45, 0000, £95,000
- Mandatory and general training to support behaviour change: May 2025, £15,000, £45,000 PA
- Review and development of the Council's systems and processes to manage member behaviour, code of conduct: June/ July 2025, £15,000
- Review existing mentors: Until new programme in place, £24,000, £24,000
- Total: £139,000, £164,000
The council has commissioned the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) to help support the diagnostic stage of the political mentoring project. The Transformation and Assurance Board Leadership Lead will build relationships with members across the chamber, support effective engagement with the improvement journey and provide signposting to wider support. The council also intends to implement a bespoke, mandatory outsourced universal mentoring programme following the May 2026 election.
Councillor Sirajul Islam, Leader of the Opposition, suggested providing anonymous examples of grey areas in member behaviour to foster understanding. He said:
I think to help members understand, you know, if there are grey areas, some things are black and white. But if there are grey areas where you think maybe that wasn't acceptable or maybe that was acceptable, just to probably provide some anonymous examples and say, look, what do members think? Do you think this was actually appropriate or do you think that wasn't?
Councillor Islam added that he did not believe there was a widespread problem across the council, stating, I don't think we have a problem across the council, across all members. It literally is possibly a handful or a handful of occasions where things have happened.
The Standards Advisory Committee's work plan for the upcoming year includes continued monitoring of complaints and member training. The committee aims to embed ethical standards and behaviours that support the Nolan principles in public life.
