Issue - meetings

This report presents the Committee with its annual Work Programme.

The Committee received a report presenting its annual Work Programme.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Scrutiny Items. A Member of the Committee queried if Scrutiny items would be dealt with on an ad-hoc basis and therefore, would not be added to the workplan.The Interim Director of Corporate Services confirmed to the Committee that this assessment is correct, however, it is important to be mindful of resource for any form of scrutiny activity and that this kind of scrutiny activity isn’t something which would take place at a Committee Meeting, but would be done outside of the Committee, with a report potentially coming back to the Committee detailing on any findings. A Member of the Committee raised that the process as to how ad-hoc scrutiny items are brought to the Committee, could be discussed at the February 2024 Meeting, to ensure that the issues that the Committee would like to see and scrutinise are actually brought before it. The Chair responded to inform the Committee that if a Member would like an item to be brough to the Committee, they should email them within a sensible time frame so it can be considered and reports produced.

b)            Changes to the Workplan. A Member of the Committee raised that a few items had been moved on the workplan to later meetings, with one item, the Compliance with Surveillance Cameras Code of Practice, having been removed from the workplan entirely, and queried why these changes had been made. The Interim Director of Corporate Services informed the Committee that the Code of Practice for Surveillance Cameras is an item that has come to Audit and Scrutiny Committee in the past but now sits under the Crime & Disorder Committee. The Interim Director of Corporate Services explained to the Committee that the Annual Complaints report was moved from the November 2023 Meeting to the March 2024 Meeting due to resourcing issues around producing the report. The Interim Director of Corporate Services continued to explain that the Council is currently going through a review with the Local Government Ombudsman for a Code of Practice relating to complaints, therefore, with the permission of the Chair, a report will be brought to the Committee to discuss the response to the Code of Practice, which the LGO is seeking to introduce, and then use that as the basis for the Annual Complaints Report. The Member asked if in future, if items are removed or delayed on the Workplan, a sentence is included to explain why the changes have been made. The Interim Director of Services confirmed that could be done going forward.

c)            Scheme of Delegation. A Member of the Committee asked whether a report regarding the extent of the Scheme of Delegation issue and how the situation arose would be presented to the Committee in due course, or whether the report will just be an update on the current state of the Scheme of Delegation and how the issue was rectified. The Monitoring Officer responded to inform  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73