Issue - meetings

The Council noted that, at the meeting of the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee on 24 March 2022, an internal audit report prepared by KPMG into the effectiveness of the Committee had recommended, amongst other things, that the Council should consider amending the Committee’s terms of reference to:

(a)   include at the beginning a high-level Statement of Purpose, or summary of the Committee’s role in the Council’s framework of governance; and

(b)   add an explicit section on how the Committee is accountable to the full Council;

It was suggested by KPMG that formal arrangements should be in place for the Committee to demonstrate accountability for the adequacy of its performance to the full Council and, bearing in mind that performance would be assessed against how well the Committee discharged its responsibilities as set out in its terms of reference, it was felt that the opportunity could be taken to review the terms of reference as a whole, including consideration of KPMG’s recommendations referred to in (a) and (b) above. 

To that end, the Committee agreed that the Corporate Governance Task Group should review the terms of reference and report back to the Committee.

The Task Group considered this matter at its meeting held on 7 April 2022.  The proposed amendments to the Committee’s terms of reference, as recommended by the Task Group, were considered by the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee on 16 June 2022, and the Committee formally commended the amendments for adoption by the Council.

As the Committee’s terms of reference were also set out in Article 10 of the Constitution, it would also be necessary to incorporate those changes within Article 10.  The amendments to the terms of reference and to Article 10 were set out in the report submitted to the Council.

Upon the motion of the Vice-Chairman of the Corporate Governance & Standards Committee, Councillor Deborah Seabrook, seconded by the Chairman of that Committee, Councillor George Potter, the Council

RESOLVED: That the changes proposed to the terms of reference of the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the Council, and the changes proposed to Article 10 of the Constitution, as set out in Appendix 3 to the report, be adopted.

Reasons:

·       To ensure that the Committee’s terms of reference are updated and remain relevant.

·       To address KPMG’s recommendations in their internal audit report on the effectiveness of the Committee in respect of its terms of reference.