Agenda item

A report of the Head of Strategic Support setting out proposals for a new scrutiny committee structure, for recommendation to full Council.

Considered a report of the Monitoring Officer setting out proposals for a new scrutiny committee structure, for recommendation to full Council (item 8 on the agenda filed with these minutes).

The Head of Strategic Support assisted with consideration of the report.  Further to the report, he stated that the recommendations set out, if agreed by the Board, would be submitted to Council on 25th February 2019.  If agreed by Council, a further report setting out a 2019/20 meetings schedule to accord with the revised scrutiny structure would be submitted to the next Council meeting on 25th March 2019.  A report would also be submitted to the next meeting of the Board on 6th March 2019 to enable it to review the current scrutiny work programme and allocate items it wished to be carried over to the new scrutiny structure.  The Head of Strategic Support also advised that the correct name of the proposed scrutiny committee under the fourth bullet point of recommendation 1 in the report was the Housing, Planning, Regeneration and Regulatory Services Scrutiny Committee.

The Board asked the Head of Strategic Support to:

(i)        Ensure that it was clear in the report submitted to Council on 25th February 2019 that it was only proposed to change the scrutiny structure and that the executive, regulatory and governance committees of the Council would be unchanged.

(ii)       Ensure that the report to be submitted to the Board on 6th March 2019 to allocate items to the new scrutiny structure clearly states, for each item, a recommendation as to the new scrutiny committee it is most appropriately allocated to, perhaps via an extra column indicating that on the current scrutiny work programme.  

RESOLVED that it be recommended to Council that:

1.      that the current scrutiny committee structure set out in the Constitution be replaced with the following committees as from the commencement of the 2019/20 civic year:

•        Scrutiny Commission (consisting of 7 members selected on a politically balanced basis, quorum to be 4 members), 

•        Scrutiny Call-In Committee (consisting of 8 members being the Chairs and Vice-chairs of the other 4 scrutiny committees, quorum to be 5 members),

•        Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee (consisting of 7 members selected on a politically balanced basis; quorum to be 4 members),

•        Housing, Planning, Regeneration and Regulatory Services Scrutiny Committee (consisting of 7 members selected on a politically balanced basis, quorum to be 4 members),

•        Neighbourhoods & Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee (consisting of 7 members selected on a politically balanced basis, quorum to be 4 members);

2.      that the overall areas of responsibility for each of the new scrutiny committees be as summarised in Part B of the report of the Monitoring Officer;

3.      that the Constitution be amended as required to implement the new scrutiny committee structure as set out in resolutions 1 and 2 above, with the detailed amendments to be set out by the Monitoring Officer for Council within a report to Council.

Reason

1 to 3.   To implement a new scrutiny committee structure, following on from the recommendation made by the Centre for Public Scrutiny that the current scrutiny structure should be reviewed.