Minutes:
The Senior Democratic Services Officer (Scrutiny) introduced the item. He advised the Committee that the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report outlined the work undertaken by Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) during the past municipal year and the future work programmes of the Council’s O&S committees for the current municipal year. In addition, the Committee was reminded that the report monitored the use of provisions relating to call-in and urgency provisions during 2023-24.
The Senior Democratic Services Officer (Scrutiny) indicated that in 2023-24 the general exception provisions were used on three occasions, the Special Urgency provisions once, and there was one call-in and no requests to the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to waive call-in.
The Committee was advised of a minor procedural change suggested within the report; namely, that the Leader of the Council should report to the next meeting of full Council on all key decisions taken with less than 28 days’ notice, that is to say, key decisions taken using general exception provisions are required to be reported to full Council in the same manner as key decisions made under Special Urgency provisions.
With reference to the section of the Annual Report relating to the resourcing of O&S at the Council, the Committee was reminded of the deletion of the separate scrutiny budget for external expertise and advice. The Senior Democratic Services Officer (Scrutiny) suggested the importance of the budget and the disadvantages of not having access to one given the role of O&S.
In response to a comment from a Committee member supporting the idea of a separate budget for scrutiny for external advice and expertise, the Assistant Director, Finance, suggested that if the scrutiny budget was re-introduced then regardless of its value it would have to be part of the balanced budget for the Council. She suggested that because a budget for scrutiny would likely be used only infrequently it might be better to have a small reserve to take from as needed. In addition, the Assistant Director, Finance, indicated that the creation of a budget should follow the Council’s growth bid process.
A member of the Committee suggested the value in increasing the annual scrutiny budget for external expertise and advice from the previous amount of £5k. In reply to a question from the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Housing, the Assistant Director, Finance, indicated that a separate scrutiny budget should be considered within the ongoing, annual budget process.
The Senior Democratic Services Officer (Scrutiny) responded to a query from a member of the Committee about the reference to a single O&S Chair within the report, given the change to two O&S Committees made in April 2024.
RESOLVED: (I) That the report submitted to the Committee be commended as the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report, 2023-24.
(II) That the current rules relating to call-in and the urgency provisions remain unchanged, subject to the addition that whenever the general exception provisions are used to take key decisions in accordance with Access to Information Procedure Rule 15 the details of those decisions shall be reported by the Leader to the next ordinary meeting of the Council.
(III) That an Overview and Scrutiny budget of £5k per annum be re-established.
Supporting documents: