Agenda item

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 the Committee that a meeting with the Chair and Vice Chair of Audit and Scrutiny and the Chair and Vice Chair of Standards and Constitutions had taken place to agree the scope of the report that will provisionally come to the February 2024 Meeting of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee. The Monitoring Officer raised that there is still the potential for the report needing to be moved to come to the March 2024 Meeting of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee, but the reports presented will be on the basis of the scope that has been discussed with the Chair and Vice Chair.

d)            Agenda items. A Member of the Committee asked the Monitoring Officer to confirm the process and timeframe for Councillors to request for something to be added or included on the Agenda. The Monitoring Officer advised Members to refer to Appendix 5 of the Constitution, where it states that any Councillor who wishes to request a particular item of business to be included, must give notice to the Monitoring Officer by noon on the 10^th working day before the Meeting. The Monitoring Officer highlighted that Annexe 4.6 of the Council’s Operating Framework, which is relevant to the Audit and Scrutiny Committee, states that all matters should be raised in writing with the Scrutiny Officer before they will be considered.

e)            Scrutiny Call-in. A Member of the Committee asked what the process is for scrutiny items raised by Committee Members. The Interim Director of Corporate Services outlined to the Committee that all scrutiny items where Officers need to carry out some form of scrutiny would not take place in a committee environment but would need to be conducted outside in order to collect information, ask people to make representations to consider and to be able to talk in a slightly more informal and candid way than when on camera.  The Interim Director of Corporate Services informed the Committee that when a Member wishes to bring an item to Committee, it must follow the normal report writing and publishing process and format, in these cases, the work is undertaken a number of weeks prior to the Committee Meeting. The Member asked for clarification as to where the scrutiny process takes place if it is outside of the working cycle of the Committee. The Chair responded to explain that it is usually undertaken by a group of people that get together to scrutinise an issue or decision, after which a report is produced to bring back to Committee.

Following consideration, the Committee resolved to;

(5 for, 1 abstaining and the Chair not voting)

(1)      Note and agree the ongoing Work Programme as presented in Section 2.