Police authorities will be covered by legislation made by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions under the 2000 Act. Where the general dispensations apply it is stated that members may regard themselves as not having a personal interest. Other circumstances under which dispensations may be considered and given by a standards committee are specified in these regulations. At present the power to grant dispensations rests with the Local Government Act 1972. The National Assembly for Wales has the power to grant dispensations to members of unitary authorities.
Unitary authorities have the power to grant dispensations for community councils.
This will be repealed under the 2000 Act. This general power has not been incorporated in the regulations under the 2000 Act because of the wide way in which it might be interpreted. This could lead to a weakening of the regime that is being established. However, unitary authorities do currently have this power for community councils and we would welcome comments on how this is deemed to have operated and whether there is value in retaining such a wide discretionary power. In Wales it is proposed that over half of the members of a standards committee or sub-committee will be independent and will serve only one term.