Agenda item

The Council’s Code of Corporate Governance - ‘the Code’ - was updated and approved by the Committee in November 2022. The Code sets out the principles of good governance and the arrangements the Council has in place to ensure it conducts its business in accordance with them. As part of best practice, the Code is reviewed annually by officers. Attached at Appendix 1 is an updated Code. No major changes have been made, purely minor administrative updates.

The Council’s Code of Corporate Governance - ‘the Code’ - was updated and approved by the Committee in November 2022. The Code sets out the principles of good governance and the arrangements the Council has in place to ensure it conducts its business in accordance with them. As part of best practice, the Code is reviewed annually by officers. The Committee received the update Code as Appendix 1 to the report. No major changes were made, purely minor administrative updates.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Spelling Mistake. A Member of the Committee highlighted a spelling mistake on page 58 where the sentence included ‘offices’ instead of ‘officers’. The Interim Director of Corporate Services confirmed to the Committee that the amended line would read, ‘A code of conduct for officers is in place’.

b)            Transparency Page. A Member of the Committee asked if the line that has been removed from the Transparency Page Website bullet point on page 68, is confirmation that the project has been completed. The Interim Director of Corporate Services informed the Committee that the project has not be completed yet, but the team responsible are working on it and hope for it to be delivered soon.

c)            Urgent Decision. A Member of the Committee asked about principles B and G of good corporate governance as set out on page 55, which detail openness, stakeholder engagement, transparency, reporting and effective accountability. The Member referenced these two principles when discussing a point raised at Strategy and Resources Committee, held on the 14^th of November 2023, regarding 3 urgent decisions, of which only one had been reported in MemberNews. The Member wished to check that the right processes are in place for Members to see what decisions are being made in due time. The Interim Director of Corporate Services responded to inform the Committee that the Chair of Strategy and Resources confirmed at the 14^th of November 2023 Meeting, that a response would be provided on this matter. The Interim Director of Corporate Services continued to explain that of the 3 urgent decisions in question, only one was not published on MemberNews, and this was purely down to human error and an officer mistake. The Interim Director of Corporate Services informed the Committee that there is a process to ensure transparency and that all decisions are taken in consultation with the Chair of the relevant Committee, it is then the process to publish the decision that has been taken to MemberNews and to bring any decisions as urgent items to the subsequent Committees at the next available opportunity.

d)            Live Meeting Webcasts. A Member of the Committee asked why YouTube livestreams of Committee Meetings do not remain on YouTube indefinitely, as it is free to leave them up, and queried whether there are other considerations as to why they cannot remain online for the public to see an accurate record of the meeting.  The Interim Director of Corporate Services responded to state that Recording Retention is an area that can be reviewed and there have been discussions with the Standards and Constitutions Committee as to whether this is something that should be reviewed. The Interim Director of Corporate Services went on to explain that the recording is kept up until such time as the Minutes of the meeting are approved, after which the Minutes become the official and accurate record of the meeting. The Interim Director of Corporate Services explained that there is also the principle under data protection legislation that recordings should only be kept whilst there is a need for them, therefore, once the Minutes have been agreed and approved, there is no need for the recordings any longer and they should be destroyed.

e)            Roof Repairs. A Member of the Committee asked about an item raised at Strategy and Resources Committee on the 21^st of September 2023, regarding a roof repair which increased from 105k when initially approved at Committee to 255k being the final cost. The Member asked if there was any subsequent information that could be provided regarding a potential report or review being brought to Audit and Scrutiny Committee answering why that tendering process ended up so vastly different to what originally came to the S&R Committee, and whether the item would be added to the Council’s internal auditors workplan. The Interim Director of Corporate Services confirmed that the item would be added to the work programme for the internal auditors for next year. The Interim Director of Corporate Services explained to the Committee that the workplan is set annually and therefore, it is something that will be discussed in January. The Interim Director of Corporate Services confirmed that they had received a request to expedite this specific issue, which has been communicated to SIAP, the Council’s internal auditors. The Member responded to state that expediting this one-off piece of work would be excellent.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Approve the updates to the Code of Corporate Governance attached at Appendix 1.