Agenda item

To consider which of the recommendations/actions arising from the scrutiny improvement review and subsequent discussions to take forward.

RESOLVED:

1.  That the letter from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny, arising from the scrutiny improvement review commissioned by the council (Appendix 1 to the report) be noted.

2.  That the proposed Action Plan (Appendix 2) of the report be noted, and that all the recommendations be agreed, noting that recommendations 1, 2 and 9 will require further approval from either cabinet or council assembly.

3.  That in respect of review of call-in arrangements, overview and scrutiny committee recommends that any three members of the council can request the call-in of a decision.

4.  That the grounds for call-in be:

·  Lack of consultation

·  New important evidence

·  Insufficient information or important information disregarded

·  Lack of a clear recommendation

·  Lack of reason for a recommendation

·  No details on other options considered, or consultation carried out

·  Inadequate consideration of legal and financial issues

·  No or incomplete list of background documents

·  Omission of key facts on which decision is based

·  Clear deviance from Constitution’s principles

·  Outside the financial and legal frameworks

·  Flaw in process – procedures not followed correctly

5.  That a formalised timetable be prepared giving an indication of when recommendations will be implemented.

6.  That a recommendations monitor be established in order to track the progress of recommendations, to be maintained by the scrutiny team.

7.  That the proposal for the minutes of the overview and scrutiny committee meetings to be submitted to council assembly, be submitted to the group whips for consideration.

8.  That matters requiring cabinet/council assembly approval be brought to their respective November meetings.