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| Wiltshire Conservative Councillor Jonathon Seed |
UPDATE (6/7/21): We now have a response from Wiltshire Council to our questions on why it allows councillors to not have criminal records checks.
They've confirmed that they don't carry out criminal records checks on all councillors and this is their policy.
More to come from us on this...
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How is it that a person that has a drink driving conviction and is BANNED from taking public office as a Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), can somehow still be an elected councillor?
In the May 2021 election for Police and Crime Commissioners, Conservative candidate Jonathon Seed won the election. Seed is also a Wiltshire Conservative Councillor on the Wiltshire Council unitary authority, as shown on the Council website here.
But Councillor Seed was disqualified from taking office as Wiltshire's Police and Crime Commissioner, because he had a drink driving conviction. Drink driving is an imprisonable offence, although Councillor Seed did not go to prison.
The rules for PCCs were decided by MPs in Parliament. These are the MPs of the national political parties - for England these are Labour, Tory, Lib Dems and Green.
It is clear that the rules for elected councillors are different to those for PCCs.
You would think that they would be the same, but they aren't.
Somerset Independents has asked Wiltshire Council whether they conduct criminal records checks for ALL councillors. They have confirmed that they do not. They said:
"Wiltshire Council conducts Enhanced DBS Checks for councillors who are in contact with, or receive information about, vulnerable people in our community as part of their role on the council.
The DBS Code of Practice stipulates that Registered Bodies, such as the council, should only submit disclosure applications in relation to relevant positions, for that reason it is not considered necessary to undertake a DBS check for all councillors; this approach is typical across councils nationally."
Somerset County Council conducts DBS checks on all councillors after being elected. Sedgemoor District Council also conducts DBS checks on all councillors. Both councils have confirmed this to us. This is as it should be.
But not Wiltshire Council, even with a councillor such as Councillor Jonathon Seed representing the people of the "Melksham Without West and Rural" council area. A councillor who has been barred from public office as a Police and Crime Commissioner.
The checks for a councillor to be elected to Wiltshire Council are obviously inadequate.
We've gone back to them with more questions, to challenge the untruths in their claims and find out more about what they are doing to protect the Wiltshire public from dodgy councillors.
So change is needed to protect the public's trust in their elected representatives.
Our Campaign for Criminal Records (DBS) Checks
Somerset Independents has been campaigning loudly for ALL those seeking election:
- councillors (cllrs)
- members of parliament (MPs)
- Police and Crime Commissioner (PCCs)
to have to undergo criminal records checks, using the Disclosures and Barring Service (DBS) checks.
For anybody to be a candidate, we say that they have to be "clear" in the Standard DBS check.
Councillor Seed is under investigation by Police for what happened during his candidacy as a PCC. Under the rules, Seed was required to "self-declare" that he was not disqualified. It was reported by ITV that Seed claimed that he told the Conservative Party. In a Statement, Seed said:
"I have declared my 30-year-old driving conviction to the Party in my applications both to be a Parliamentary candidate and more recently a PCC candidate."
It was ITV journalist Rupert Evelyn who investigated Councillor Seed and broke the news. Seed told ITV on camera that he would not speak to them or answer their questions.
It was not until ITV investigated that the full truth started to come out, with the report by Mr Evelyn published on 9th May, AFTER THE ELECTION. Wiltshire's voters had been conned.
There were inadequate independent checks made on Seed as a candidate. There are no independent checks such as a criminal records (DBS) check.
He and the Conservative Party were allowed by the lack of independent checks to stand him as a valid candidate, despite the criminal conviction for drink driving.
Instead, Seed and all other candidates were required only to make a self-certification in the process to be a candidate.
Nobody checked up on the candidates on whether their self-certification was accurate.
Independent Checks To Bring Public Trust
Independent checks are needed, because the public require their elected representatives to be trustworthy.
Somerset Independents says that someone with a drink driving conviction or other imprisonable offence, IS NOT FIT TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE - PCC, MP or councillor.
Do you agree? If you do or if you don't, we would love to hear from you.
A self-certification system as is the present case, by those who could conspire to cover up convictions, if they were so minded, is totally inadequate. The Seed case proves it.
Now it is up to the Police to investigate what happened. So we will not comment further on their investigation of what happened.
HOWEVER, could the estimated cost of £1.4 million of another election have been avoided?
YES. WE SAY A VERY LOUD YES!
If Seed had been subjected to independent criminal records DBS checks as part of the nomination process as a candidate, the Standard DBS check would have shown up his conviction. But the law does not require this at present.
The Standard DBS check "shows spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings", according to the gov.uk website.
The Basic DBS check is not adequate to show up this, because it only "shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions".
ALL Representatives AND ALL Candidates MUST Be Checked
So Somerset Independents is now campaigning for the Standard DBS check to be applied to ALL elected representatives and ALL candidates to be elected representatives.
Before they are elected, they should be checked before becoming a candidate.
After they are elected, they should be checked by the Council once they have accepted office.
After this, their DBS checks should be renewed annually, not left for four years until the next election.
If the law was changed so that a candidate had to submit a DBS check as part of their nomination papers to the Returning Officer, it would then have to be "clear" for them to be declared as a valid candidate on the Statement of Persons Nominated issued by the Returning Officer.
What About Here In Somerset and Not "Over The Border"?
Sadly, many councillors in Somerset have not supported our campaign for DBS checks for all councillors. We've contacted them all, around 250 district and county councillors.
As we've said above, Somerset County Council conducts DBS checks on all councillors after being elected. Sedgemoor District Council also conducts DBS checks on all councillors. Both councils have confirmed this to us. This is as it should be.
But Mendip District Council, Somerset West and Taunton Council, and South Somerset District Council all confirmed that they DO NOT carry out such checks.
Added to this, let's remember, Mendip have been economical with the facts about councillors that have not paid their council tax. South Somerset have flatly refused to answer questions about their councillors who have not paid council tax.
Can you trust your councillors?
Some councillors were hostile to our enquiries about DBS checks.
Some councillors said they support our campaign but did nothing to support it.
Some even argued that it should be the national political parties who do the checks.
The Seed case shows that candidates and parties self-certifying does not deal with the problem of self-certification, as the potential for cover-ups exists - although this is not proven in the Seed case.
Independent checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service are needed. In the light of the Seed case, and many others before it, they are vital for confidence in candidates for public office.
Are There Dodgy Councillors in Somerset Like Wiltshire's Councillor Seed?
Are there councillors in Somerset who are like Councillor Seed over the border in Wiltshire? Residents can be almost certain that there are, due to what we have shown in this article, but they have not been exposed yet.
Just like with our campaign on councillors who did not pay their council tax, but put up your council tax, it will be up to Somerset Independents to work with residents to expose these dodgy councillors.
Meanwhile, Somerset Independents will continue its campaigning to stand up for Somerset's residents to get better representatives and better representation.
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| Standing Up For Residents |
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