Meeting documents

To confirm the minutes of the meetings held on 23 March 2015 and 26 May 2015.

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 March 2015 and 26 May 2015 were agreed and signed by the Chairman; subject to an amendment from Cllr Reid to Cllr Reed in the 23 March 2015 minutes.

To receive a briefing from the Director of Resources

The Director of Resources and Head of Legal & Democratic Services provided an introduction to scrutiny presentation to the Committee which outlined the following key areas of the scrutiny function:-

• Statutory Functions of Overview & Scrutiny
•  Procedure Rules for Overview & Scrutiny Committees
• Role of Overview and Scrutiny at SBDC
• How Overview & Scrutiny can operate
• Scrutiny of Performance Indicators, which included
  • Linked to Council’s three objectives
  • Information collected on internal corporate performance indicators system
  • Review of specific Portfolio areas
• Summary
  • Overview and Scrutiny was advisory and not a decision making body
  • Help and support the Cabinet, whilst being independent of the executive role
  • Help the Council to improve

Members were invited to ask questions about the role of Overview and Scrutiny and the key areas of the presentation.  In response to members questions, officers clarified that if an item was called in then the Committee were required to meet within 15 working days of receipt of the call in request; that duplication with Policy Advisory Groups of consideration of topics was avoided but on some occasions may be necessary if a Policy Advisory Group was looking at a specific issue but Overview and Scrutiny were reviewing performance etc. this may be considered appropriate and it was clarified that an individual member, with the agreement of the Chairman of the O & S Committee, may request items for consideration by the Committee.

To discuss the work programme timetable having regard to the 28 Day Notice/Forward Plan.

The Committee considered the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme 2015/16.

The following areas were raised for inclusion on the Work Programme:

• Performance Indicators Review – to include a presentation from the Policy Officer on how the KPI system worked at the next meeting, together with all the KPIs.  Consideration would then be given whether subsequent meeting focus on specific groups of KPIs.
• Retain Frimley Park Trust on the work programme for annual updates.
• Continue to monitor the performance of the Ambulance Service.
• The Committee may wish to consider presentations from relevant organisations in the future e.g. Citizen’s Advice Bureau.
• An update on Welfare Reform and Universal Credit.
• Overview of the Core Planning Strategy.
• Review of Children’s Service – to put on the agenda the minutes of the Bucks County Council Children Services & Education Select Committee alongside the Adult Social Care Select Committee minutes.

·        To receive monthly financial reports including the budgetary variance figures.

RESOLVED that the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme 2015/16, including above amendments, be noted.

The Committee considered the report which provided Members with an update on the public engagement with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004, the Data Protection Act 1998, the Transparency Code of Practice, the INSPIRE Regulations, Regulatory Investigatory Powers Act and Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.  The report was a reflective analysis of the past year’s FOI and EIR progress and activities and provided information on the number of requests received and the categorisation of the requester type.

The cumulative percentage for year 2014/15 of total FOI requests received was 606 of which 530 were responded to within 20 working days (87.6%).  It was reported that the service areas that received the most FOI requests were Healthy Communities, Business Support and Customer Services.  The Committee were informed of the breakdown of requests by month per financial year including year on year percentage increases but with 2014/15 had seen a levelling off in the increase of FoI requests.  Developments to the monitoring and tracking of FOI requests had been introduced through the introduction of an electronic tracking system (Vuelio) and this was also helping to identify specific trends in requests to target responses and identify further need for information to be published on the Council’s website to further reduce FOI requests.

RESOLVED that the Annual Freedom of Information Report be noted.

To note the minutes of the of meetings held on:

·        10 February 2015

·        24 March 2015

·        28 April 2015

The Committee noted the minutes of the Select Committee meetings held on 10 February, 24 March and 28 April 2015.

There were no questions.

There was no further business.