Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was noted that Councillor H Kane was substituting for Councillor A Grigg and Councillor G Waller was substituting for Councillor Stallan.

To agree the notes from the 08 July 2013 meeting.

The notes of the meeting held on 08 July 2013 were agreed.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

There were no declarations of interest pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct.

A draft of the Panel’s final report  will follow.

The Panel considered their draft final report, considering each section in turn and amending where necessary. They noted that:

1.    The main Overview and Scrutiny Committee had queried the need for a revised seating plan when an outside body was giving a presentation. They thought this was still an idea worth exploring and thought that is should be trialled for a nine month period to have enough time to revert to the old system if necessary.

2.    They would also like it stressed in the report that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee should be the ones to identify who they saw and not just have repeated presentations on an annual basis.

3.    Paragraph 3.5 should be reworded as at the present it sounded too much like O&S was there to do the Cabinet’s bidding and it should be a two way process.

4.    Paragraph 3.6 should be strengthened to say that the relevant Portfolio Holder should attend every relevant Standing Panel if at all possible and not just any special meeting arranged to question the PH specifically.

5.    Paragraph 3.12 should be altered to read that any scrutiny decision (by standing or T&F panels and the main O&S Committee) should be reported on six months down the line. Also if a recommendation is made to a portfolio holder then he should attend the next meeting to tell the committee if he agreed with their recommendations and if so what they were going to do to implement the recommendations (or not). This should only be a verbal report, with a main written report coming back in six months time.

6.    Paragraph 3.13 the words “in consultation with the O&S Chairman or Vice Chairman” when the officer agenda planning group considered the work programme.

Call-in Procedures

1.    In Paragraph 3.19 it should be made clear that officers would take email notifications of a call-in and accept a hard copy later than the five day deadline.

2.    Paragraph 3.20 - To reword the sentence beginning “At present the arrangement is that…” to make it clear that only the first five signatories of the call-in would be given the opportunity to speak at the beginning of the call-in session, followed by the PH. Any other signatory can to speak during the general discussion that follows.

3.    Paragraph 3.21 – the last sentence in this paragraph to add the words “to sit” so that it reads “…relevant Director and the Portfolio Holder being asked to sit together…”

4.    The new seating arrangements to also be trialled for a 9 month period.

External Organisations

1.    Paragraph 3.22 - That the words “line of questioning” replaces the word “tactics” in the second sentence of this paragraph.

2.    Paragraph 3.26 – Again, the new seating arrangements be put in place for a trial period of nine months.

Budget Scrutiny

1.    Paragraph 3.26 (should be 3.29) – that the word “by” replace the word “in” in the second sentence in this paragraph; so that it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.