Issue - meetings

To consider the report on statutory guidance on overview and scrutiny and the Memorandum of Understanding.

The Chair introduced the report which presented two documents: the Statutory Guidance on Overview and Scrutiny in Local and Combined Authorities published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Memorandum of Understanding between Scrutiny and Cabinet.

The Chair said paragraph 18 of the report stated that Members who had been appointed “topic leads” should not take part in any research, discussion or decision on any subject relating to their topic. However officers had since advised him that this had been reviewed and could prove to be too restrictive. . Members agreed to review the matter if concern arose regarding the role of topic leads in this respect.

Members agreed that it was important to maintain a positive relationship with Cabinet, including having Cabinet members attend meetings of the Committee to discuss issues which they were leading on.

Councillor Criscione said having the budget presented to the Committee within good time would be important for effective scrutiny. The Director – Finance and Corporate Services said the procedure for this was the same annually. The budget strategy was initially presented to Scrutiny Committee in November, and then the budget reports were presented to the Committee in February.

On the request of Members, the Democratic Services Officer said he would circulate the list of Members who were topic leads once this list had been finalised.