6.1

The Council has established a Scrutiny Committee to support the work of the Executive and the Council as a whole.  Its principal aim is to lead and manage the process of securing continuous improvement in all Council services, and monitor the actions and decisions of the Executive.  The Committee can also lead inquiries into local issues and make recommendations to the Executive and Council.  It will be consulted on major items of policy development.

6.2

The Scrutiny Committee is free to develop its own programme of work and require Members of the Executive and senior officers (Directors and Heads of Service) to appear before it to answer questions.  It has two sub-committees to assist in its work:  Best Value and Scrutiny.

6.3

The general role and functions are set out in Part 2 of the Constitution in Article 7, especially 7.2 and 7.3 (pages 20-22).  (Note – page references in this report refer to the Constitution as submitted to full Council on 22 May 2001.)

6.4

These are refined by the terms of reference of the Committee and Sub-Committees (part 3E).  They are reproduced in Appendix 6.1.

i.

The Chairman of Scrutiny.  This is likely to be the most frequent route and would normally be done in consultation with Members and officers or reflected in the work programme.

ii.

Any Member of Scrutiny may request an item be placed on the agenda through the Proper Officer.

iii.

Any 5 Members of Council may similarly make a request.

iv.

Resolutions may be made by the Council or Executive to undertake a piece of work, either policy development or review.

v.

See later:  call in and Policy Development Framework.

6.6

References to the Proper Officer mean the Chief Executive in this context.  For practical purposes, notices may also be served on the Member and Electoral Services Manager, Andrew Clark

6.7

Scrutiny meetings will be minuted as present practice although the style will be fuller reflecting points made.  The Minutes will be reported to full Council.

6.8

The responsibility for preparing reports rests with the Chairman of Scrutiny.  These will be submitted via the Proper Officer to the Executive or Council, who has the responsibility of ensuring it goes on the appropriate agendas (if not, goes straight to full Council).

6.10

The response from the Executive is called the 'Executive Response' and may be prepared by the Leader or portfolio holder.  Again this is copied to the Proper Officer who places it on the next available meeting of Scrutiny.  The Executive Member may be asked to appear.  If the Scrutiny Committee are dissatisfied with the response, the matter goes to full Council.

6.11

Call-in relates to the 'after the event' scrutiny of Executive decisions, which may have been made by Members or officers.  Again, the central figure in the procedures is the Proper Officer.

Ø

The Proper Officer publishes Executive decisions (including electronically) within two working days of the meeting.

Ø

Publication includes the notification of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Scrutiny, on whom formal notice in a prescribed form must be made.

Ø

The call-in procedure can be instigated within seven days, up to 4.00 pm on the seventh day.  (Chairman or Vice-Chairman of Scrutiny gives written  notice to Proper Officer.)

Ø

A meeting of Scrutiny must then be convened within seven days (unless a meeting has already been scheduled).  (Could be a sub-committee if within terms of reference.)

Ø

The Proper Officer serves notice on the decision maker to this effect.

Ø

The decision may not be implemented until the decision maker has reconsidered having regard to the views of the Scrutiny Committee.

6.12

Making new policy and budgets is the prerogative of full Council.  They are proposed by the Executive and reviewed by Scrutiny.  There are special rules to cover making new policy, termed the budget and policy framework.  

6.13

The budget, council tax, and council tax base are fairly self evident.  The policy framework includes:-

·

The Best Value Performance Plan

·

Community Plan

·

Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy

·

Local Plan

·

Budget Strategy

·

Treasury Management Strategy

·

Asset Management Plan

·

Housing Investment Programme

·

Food Law Enforcement Plan

·

LA21 Strategy

·

Any other plans or strategy the Council determines

6.15

Prior to this, the Executive may have commissioned a Policy Advisory Group or Scrutiny Committee or Sub-Committee to carry out preparatory policy development work.

6.16

A timetable including all the steps in Appendix 6.2 will be built into all budget and policy proposals.

6.17

All decisions made by the Executive must be within the budget or policy framework prevailing at the time;  otherwise a recommendation must be made to full Council.  (Cases of doubt are arbitrated by the Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer.)

6.18

Urgency:  This applies to decisions outside the policy or budget framework.  If a decision is urgent, and it is not practicable to call full Council (who are meeting monthly), the Chairman of Scrutiny (if unable to act, Chairman of Council, Vice-Chairman of Council) must provide a written statement agreeing the decision as urgent (4E, 5.1, 5.2).  A report must subsequently be made to full Council.

6.19

Call-in:  There may be a disagreement between the Executive and Scrutiny as to whether a decision is within the budget or policy framework.

6.20

Scrutiny Committee would then seek the advice of the Monitoring or Chief Financial Officer.  Their advice would be in the form of a report sent to all Members.

6.21

If the advice is that the decision is outside the policy and budgetary framework, the Executive has the choice of not to make or implement the decision, or refer it to full Council (Part 4E, 6.5).  An extraordinary meeting of Council may be called.

6.22

If the decision has been made and implemented before call-in, the steps continue as before, through clearly the remedies are somewhat limited.  However, the matter would be considered in the open with local publicity.

Key Decisions

6.23

Similar considerations apply to the key decisions the Executive has to make.  These have to be included in the Executive's Forward Plan (Part 3D 13, pages 115-118).  Thus monitoring the Forward Plan and the decisions made is an important task of scrutiny.  The call-in provisions are as set out above.

6.24

There will be circumstances when a key decision has not been included in the Forward Plan and is urgent;  special provisions apply (Rules 14 and 15).

6.25

The Proper Officer in these circumstances would notify the Chairman of Scrutiny and 3 clear days must elapse before the decision is made.  Beyond this special urgency provisions apply (agreement of Chairman of Scrutiny is required in the first instance).

6.26

If key decisions are taken which are not included in the Forward Plan, and not subject to the urgency procedures, the Committee may require the Executive Leader to submit a report to next full Council.

6.27

There are few limitations on the Scrutiny Agenda (or sub-committee agenda).  These are:-

6.28

Scrutiny Committee (and its Sub-Committees) is bound by the Council's normal access to information rules.  These are set out in Part 3D.  Thus the distinctions between open and exempt information still apply.  The special rules applying to the Executive in the Forward Plan are in fact an additional set of requirements or layer on top of this.

6.29

The Scrutiny Committee and Sub-Committees are entitled to a copy of any document which is in the control of the Executive (and by extension its Committees and Joint Committees, such as the Crematorium) in relation to any business or decision.

6.30

It is not entitled to see draft documents, briefing notes or the advice given by a PAG.

6.31

There will be some circumstances when the outcome of a PAG will fall into the Scrutiny domain.  For example, if a PAG is formally constituted and noted, probably with officer reports, recommendations may be made to the Executive.  At the point where a recommendation is made, then that item can be scrutinised in the same way as any other item on the Executive agenda.  The matters to be scrutinised are the outcome of the PAG, in the form of the views of the Portfolio Holder (who will have convened the PAG) and the officer advice underpinning the recommendations.

6.32

In circumstances where PAGs are informal, with no formal note or report, there is no opportunity for Scrutiny to become involved.

6.33

There are significant areas of work which are not suitable for the Scrutiny work programme:-

i.

Individual decisions by regulatory committees – for example, Planning Applications should not be considered.  Scrutiny is not a surrogate appeals committee.

ii.

Standards issues, for example complaints about individual Members or employees are not a matter for Scrutiny.  Procedures exist already to cover this, and the Standards Committee will handle conduct issues.

iii.

Although the Scrutiny Committee will review policy and for particular topics put forward options and suggest approaches, it cannot make decisions other than its own work programme, reports and whatever budget is delegated to it.  The decision making focus of the Authority is the Executive and for the policy and budgetary framework, the Council.  Accountability rests with the Executive and Council.

iv.

The purpose of Scrutiny is not scrutinising the officers in a divisive way.  Clearly, it is quite proper for officers to be called to account for decisions they have made or advice they have given (at the appropriate level of seniority).  However, that does not extend to exposing junior officers to the local version of the Parliamentary Select Committee system.  It is the policies and decisions of the Executive that are being scrutinised, and by extension the advice and information that underpins those decisions.

v.

The work of PAGs;  subject to the qualification that the outcome of formal PAGs can be scrutinised as above.

6.34

Developing Scrutiny will be a challenging process for Members and officers alike.  With the experience elsewhere, it will be a little time before it adds real value.  However, with the procedures set out and the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others, it has the potential for being a very useful means of developing and improving our policies and practices.

6.35

Officers believe that some latitude will be required in the early months rather than a legalistic approach.  The development of the work programme will be the most important initial step.

6.36

Further flow charts of the Scrutiny role are being developed, and will be included in Appendix 6.3, or tabled at the meeting as appropriate.

RECOMMENDATIONS

     That the report is noted.

7.2

Community Safety – the Terms of Reference were agreed by Best Value Sub Committee in February. Since then, the possibility of conducting a County wide review has been discussed by Chief Executives and Best Value Officers but no firm decision has been reached. Therefore, no progress has been made with the review and the dates set out above will alter. Councillors Mrs D Brackley and P Lole were nominated to work with the review team.

7.3

Planning – work on the Terms of Reference will commence in June for submission to Best Value Sub Committee in July.

7.4

Building Control – work has started on the Terms of Reference and will be submitted to Best Value Sub Committee in July.

7.5

Parking and Transport – the Terms of Reference were agreed by Best Value Sub Committee in April and a preliminary meeting has been held to scope the work. Member nominations to work on the team have not been made.

7.6

ICT Telecommunications – the Council waiting for the Bucks CC to set a start date for this joint review.

7.7

ICT and Reprographics – the inspection took place in January. After considerable delay, the Council has received the Inspectors’ ICT Report and is due to respond with comments in the first week of June. The Reprographics report has not been received.

7.8

Open Spaces – the Inspection will take place from 25 – 29 June. Preparations are well underway to organise this. Several Members will be required for interviews and to attend the Briefing and Interim Challenge on 25 June and 9 July – see key dates below in section 7.13.

7.9

Emergency Planning – the joint Inspection of the County wide review of Emergency Planning will take place from 20 – 24 August. It will be organised by the Bucks CC in due course.

7.10

In the year 2000/01, the Council completed reviews of ICT and Reprographics, Open Spaces and Land Charges. Each review team has been asked to produce a report their progress to implement the Action Plan. Members will receive a report on this in July at Best Value Sub Committee.

7.11

The main document and loose-leaf summary were published on time by 31 March. The distribution of the summary document, as part of the Chiltern Chronicle will be delivered to all households in the District in June following the elections. This delivery date fails to meet the implied statutory requirement to distribute the BVPP summary to all households by 31 March but the Council knowingly took this decision to avoid spending an additional expenditure of £5,000.

7.12

External auditors Deloitte and Touche are required to audit the BVPP and provide the Council with a report of the findings by 30 June. To this end, the auditor has conducted interviews with Members and officers; and Internal Audit have undertaken a detailed ‘managed audit’ of the selected performance indicators in the BVPP on behalf of the External Auditor. The Council anticipates receiving a qualified report for late delivery of the BVPP summary to all households.

·

Briefing - Monday 25 June, 10.30 am in the Council Chamber; and

·

Interim Challenge – Monday 9 July, 3.00 pm in the Council Chamber.

9.1

Scrutiny is a new function for this Council, as it is for most others.  Although the development of the work programme will be a key consideration, Members will also need to consider how they will conduct a review and the skills required.

9.2

Inquiries have been made of other councils as to how they are approaching this topic.  There are three possible ways of proceeding:

(a)

Involve the I&DeA.  A proposal is included in Appendix 9.1.  The potential date is 17 July 2001.

(b)

Seek the services of an independent contractor or consultant.  A proposal is included in Appendix 9.2.  Potential dates are 11, 12 or 19 July 2001.

(c)

Request a political figure from another council to provide an introduction with support from officers or independent trainers on specific topics.

9.3

Having reviewed the material and discussed the matter with other Chief Executives, the approach suggested is:-

§

Employ the I&DeA for an initial single evening session involving a Councillor from another authority.

§

Monitor further training needs as the work of the Committee progresses, and seek the support of an independent consultant or the officer team depending on the training needs identified.

9.4

Members may also wish to have regard to the publication:  'Overview and Scrutiny, a Practitioners Guide'.  A copy of the Progress Check is included for Members' information as Appendix 9.3, and the original is currently in the Members' Room.  Further copies can be ordered (£16.00 per copy).

9.5

Resources could be found for this study from the Modernising Budget established in Policy and Finance Committee.  Steps are in hand to reformat the Council's budget to reflect the new system from the mid-year point.

     Background papers: Overview and Scrutiny, a Practioners Guide