The names of councillors guilty of misconduct in Gloucestershire are being kept hidden from the public.

Thirteen concerns were raised against Gloucestershire County Councillors over the last year.

But the identities and specific details about complaints where holders of public office have fallen short of the conduct expected of them are not being revealed.

Shire Hall bosses say councillors are entitled to confidentiality unless and until a complaint progresses to a formal hearing.

Despite the rise in complaints – none has reached the stage of a public hearing but some of the complaints listed in a report presented to the audit and governance committee suggests councillors have breached the code of conduct.

One of the cases mentioned in the report involved a complaint from a council officer that a councillor had made offensive comments in a staff meeting.

The unnamed councillor apologised according to the report. But no other details about who this is or what they said is made public.

Another complaint suggests a councillor was making excessive demands of a council officer – the report simply says this information was noted and held on file and “management action taken”.

The report also says a complaint from a member of the public against a county councillor over alleged insulting comments on social media was not looked into further because the matter was related to a Gloucester City Council issue.

An unnamed councillor complained over insulting and inappropriate comments made by another councillor but this was dismissed as “tit for tat”.

Monitoring officer Rob Ayliffe told the committee on April 25 he hoped the report would give councillors a “flavour of the complaints and how they are being dealt with”.

“The council’s practice, in line with every other council I’m aware of, is that complaints are treated as confidential unless or until they progress to a hearings panel.

“If they get to that stage, then that hearings panel is in public. But up until that point, complaints are dealt with confidentially which is why I can’t disclose any more details than I have done.”

However, neighbouring Herefordshire Council publishes all decision notices relating to councillors who have breached the code of conduct – whether the complaint reaches a public hearing stage or not.

Chairman John Bloxsom (L, Rodborough) asked at what stage, if ever, are any upheld complaints against councillors published.

“I think you said that would happen if anything goes to the panel,” he said. “As far as I know, in the life of the current council there hasn’t been anything that has gone to panel.

“And there are a number of cases which are referred to as being subject to informal resolution.”

Cllr Bloxsom said he believes some of those are already in the public domain but are not reported internally by the council. “I just wonder whether we are comfortable with that,” he said.

“The issue has been raised with me that there are other authorities where names do appear in the public domain as a result of the investigations but we aren’t doing that.”

Mr Ayliffe said he had decided not to disclose any code of conduct complaints that do not reach a public hearing because it was a “far easier line to take”.

“The difficulty with that is once you break that practice, it then becomes a matter of discretion as to whether you disclose something when you get a press enquiry which I sometimes do,” he said.

“The trouble then is if you choose not to disclose something there’s a possibility for the media to interpret an outcome from that non-disclosure. The far easier line to take is we don’t discuss this which is why I have adopted that line.”

He expressed concerns that as a result, the committee has very limited oversight of what is happening in detail.

But he said the independent persons exist to give councillors an assurance there are others looking at the cases.

Councillor Chloe Turner (G, Minchinhampton) said the council seemed to have a lot of complaints and more than previous years.

“It’s quite a depressing lineup of school child behaviour. If you were to read it as a member of the public, it doesn’t come across well.”

She asked if code of conduct training is needed. Mr Ayliffe said it is important and is looking at training being offered in June and July to focus on the protocol between councillors and officers.