Meeting Details

Meeting Summary
Scrutiny Panel
8 Jun 2021 - 18:00
Occurred
Grand Jury Room
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  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Visitors
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Part A
1 Welcome and Announcements
The Chairman will welcome members of the public and Councillors and remind everyone to use microphones at all times when they are speaking. The Chairman will also explain action in the event of an emergency, mobile phones switched to silent, audio-recording of the meeting. Councillors who are members of the committee will introduce themselves.
2 Substitutions
Councillors will be asked to say if they are attending on behalf of a Committee member who is absent.
3 Urgent Items
The Chairman will announce if there is any item not on the published agenda which will be considered because it is urgent and will explain the reason for the urgency.
4 Declarations of Interest
Councillors will be asked to say if there are any items on the agenda about which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of the item or participating in any vote upon the item, or any other pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest.
5 Minutes of Previous Meeting
The Councillors will be invited to confirm that the minutes of the meetings held on 16 March 2021 and 18 March 2021 are a correct record.
303
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2021 and 18 March 2021 be confirmed as correct records.
pdf Minutes of Scrutiny Panel meeting 16 March 2021 (126Kb)
pdf Minutes of Scrutiny Panel meeting 18 March 2021 (147Kb)
6 Have Your Say!
The Chairman will invite members of the public to indicate if they wish to speak or present a petition on any item included on the agenda or any other matter relating to the terms of reference of the meeting. Please indicate your wish to speak at this point if your name has not been noted by Council staff.
7 Decisions taken under special urgency provisions
The Councillors will consider any decisions by the Cabinet or a Portfolio Holder which have been taken under Special Urgency provisions.
8 Cabinet or Portfolio Holder Decisions called in for Review
The Councillors will consider any Cabinet or Portfolio Holder decisions called in for review.
9 Items requested by members of the Panel and other Members
(a) To evaluate requests by members of the Panel for an item relevant to the Panel’s functions to be considered.

(b) To evaluate requests by other members of the Council for an item relevant to the Panel’s functions to be considered. 

Members of the panel may use agenda item 'a' (all other members will use agenda item 'b') as the appropriate route for referring a ‘local government matter’ in the context of the Councillor Call for Action to the panel. Please refer to the panel’s terms of reference for further procedural arrangements.
10 Work Programme 2021-22
This report sets out the current Work Programme 2021-2022 for the Scrutiny Panel. This provides details of the reports that are scheduled for each meeting during the municipal year.
304
Owen Howell, Democratic Services Officer, introduced the report and explained the content and recommended decisions as set out in it. This included the recommendation that scrutiny training be arranged and made available to all potential substitute members. A Panel member asked for as much notice as possible regarding training and suggested that more than one session be set up, if possible.

The Chairman voiced his intention to instigate a rolling series of Portfolio Holder briefings and question-and-answer sessions with the Scrutiny Panel. 

The Panel discussed its role as the Crime and Disorder Committee, with the view given that the work of all partners needed to be scrutinised and discussed, rather than only focussing on the work of the Police. The Panel discussed the suggestion that the additional meeting of that Committee be cancelled, and a member recommended that if that meeting was kept, that it be used as an opportunity to question a wider range of partners.

It was noted that past meetings of the Crime and Disorder Committee had included representatives of non-police and non-statutory partners in community safety, included the Garrison and the Business Improvement District. The Panel was strongly advised to identify a specific issue or area of community safety for the Committee to examine at its second meeting each year, if this is maintained.

Members of the Panel suggested that the Panel should examine public health provision across the Borough and that the Council had a role in ensuring that public health provision was appropriate.

RESOLVED that: -

(a) The Panel has considered and approves the contents of the Work Programme for 2021-2022.

(b) An additional meeting of the Crime & Disorder Committee continue to be held in February or March and that the Panel would identify its focus

(c) Training for the Panel be organised and opened up for all members of the Council

(d) Portfolio Holders would be asked to commence a rolling series of briefings/question and answer sessions with the Scrutiny Panel.

(e) The Panel would look to conduct scrutiny of public health issues in the future.
11 Exclusion of the Public (Scrutiny)
In accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 and in accordance with The Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2000 (as amended) to exclude the public, including the press, from the meeting so that any items containing exempt information (for example confidential personal, financial or legal advice), in Part B of this agenda (printed on yellow paper) can be decided. (Exempt information is defined in Section 100I and Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972).
Part B

Attendance

Attended - Other Members
Name
No other member attendance information has been recorded for the meeting.
Apologies
NameReason for Sending ApologySubstituted By
Councillor Lorcan Whitehead Councillor Chris Pearson
Absent
NameReason for AbsenceSubstituted By
No absentee information has been recorded for the meeting.

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
No declarations of interest have been entered for this meeting.

Visitors

Visitor Information is not yet available for this meeting
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