Location: Shimkent Room, Daneshill House
Present: Members: Mr D. Morgan (Independent Chair), Mr S. Gillies (Independent member), Councillors Mrs J.E. Lloyd, M. Notley, K. Vale
Others: Councillor S. Taylor, Executive Portfolio Holder for Resources
Duration:
Start - 6.00 pm
End - 7.35 pm
Status: Noted
Business: There were no apologies for absence and no declarations of interest.
Decision:
Status: Noted
Business: The Chair referred to the sudden death of Barry Keene, who had served on the Committee as an independent member. Whilst saddened by the death of Barry, the Committee welcomed Stewart Gillies as the new independent Member.
Decision:
Status: Agreed
Business:
Decision: It was RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 19th December 2002 be confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.
With regard to a query to Minute 3(vii) the Borough Solicitor pointed out that arrangements were in hand to review the register of Members' interests at a regular time each year.
Status: Noted
Business: The Members noted the report of the Borough Solicitor advising the Committee of its additional Terms of Reference which were approved by Council on 26th February 2003.
Decision:
Status: Agreed
Business: The Borough Solicitor circulated the Ethical Governance Audit report prepared by the Institute of Public Finance and drew attention to the overall summary and conclusions. He pointed out that as this Committee had asked for the Audit report and it had only been received 2 weeks previously, there had been no detailed officer comment.
The Chair welcomed the report from which he perceived the overall tenor was a credit to the Authority. In particular, he commented on the reference to the high standard of the Financial Regulations, and he congratulated those involved in the issue of Agenda and reports, which had been referred to as demonstrating sound corporate governance in the decision making process. He also noted that the report had commented that documents issued by the Media and Communications Section were of a very high standard and demonstrated keenness to communicate openly. There was no room for complacency but a good base to build from had been established.
The Borough Solicitor drew attention to the main areas for consideration, namely:
The Constitution
The Role of the Monitoring Officer
Member and Officer Questionnaire
Benchmarks
and the Committee made the following observations:
THE CONSTITUTION AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
It was agreed that the Scheme of Delegations would need revision, and officers were asked to examine the existing delegations and bring back a revised Scheme to the Committee as soon as possible. It was pointed out that delegations might need to be drafted in more general terms in order to avoid difficulties currently experienced when a specific reference has been found to be omitted.
One Member requested that details be made available of delegations given to certain Members of the Council. Procedural clarity was also sought on items which could, and items which could not, be considered by Full Council.
It was agreed that the Constitution should be more concise, and a request was made that a user friendly guide to the Constitution should be produced for members of the public and junior officers. The Borough Solicitor informed the Committee that work would shortly commence on revamping the Constitution and that Members' comments would be borne in mind.
The Borough Solicitor explained that the revised Handbook on Members' Conduct had not been completed, as it had been the intention to publish this at the same time as the Officer Code of Conduct. However, the latter would probably not be produced by the Government until the end of the year. The Chair requested that the revised draft Handbook on Member Conduct be circulated to Committee Members for consideration during the first week of May 2003.
With regard to the Audit Reports comment that there was a notable absence of 'member/officer protocols', the Borough Solicitor explained that such a protocol had not been prepared due to the delay in the publication of an Officer Code of Conduct. It was agreed that a member/officer protocol should be proceeded with even though the Officer Code of Conduct would not be finalised until the end of the year.
The Borough Solicitor suggested that this Committee and the Planning & Development Committee should consider any revisions to the Planning Code of Conduct, although the Committee concluded that this was not a priority.
It was noted that the Anti Fraud Policy would need to be amended as soon as Section 66 Regulations were published and statutory guidance on them was issued by the Standards Board.
It was agreed that mention should be made to the Institute of Public Finance that Stevenage Borough Council has joint audit arrangements with Uttlesford District Council.
ROLE OF THE MONITORING OFFICER
The Committee considered the comments in Part 3 of the Audit Report and, in particular, it noted the need to avoid conflicts of interest in the Monitoring Officer role once the Section 66 Regulations were published.
QUESTIONNAIRE SENT TO MEMBERS AND SENIOR OFFICERS
The Committee commented that the questionnaire had taken a long time to complete and could have been made easier to understand. The 10% return was hardly representative of the views of Members and Senior Officers.
With regard to Question 1, the Committee noted that mention had been made of 'Member bullying' and verification was sought on this matter. The Committee also requested that there should be more information made available to the Community on the role of Councillors and the extent of their powers.
The dissatisfaction with the overview and scrutiny process was noted and the Committee agreed that there appeared to be a lack of opportunity for input into policy development by non-Executive Members.
In respect of Questions 8, 9 and 10, the Committee noted that there was a Member view that sometimes the appropriateness of making a declaration of interest was not always clear. The Committee concluded that more training in this area should be given.
BENCHMARKING
It was agreed that initial benchmarks vis-a-vis the integration of the new ethical framework and practices related to it should be considered at the Committee's next meeting.
Decision: It was RESOLVED:
(i) that the comments made by the Committee be forwarded to the Institute of Public Finance, asking, in the interests of clarity, for a summary of its recommendations to be provided.
(ii) that work on ensuring that the Constitution governance becomes a more user friendly document be commenced
(iii) that an action plan in response to the Ethical Audit Report be submitted to the Committee's next meeting, and that proposals for 'Benchmarking' be considered at that meeting.
Status: Noted
Business: The Borough Solicitor informed the Committee that these Regulations were awaited and that it was likely that the legislation would allow matters to be considered locally.
Decision:
Status: Noted
Business: Action Plan in response to Ethical Audit Report
Benchmarking
Handbook on Members' Conduct
Constitution and Handbook
Members' Register of Interests
Member/Officer Protocol
Scheme of Delegations
Officers' Code of Conduct
Decision:
Status: Noted
Business: None.
Decision:
Status: Noted
Business: None.
Decision: