An Overarching Scrutiny Committee?

PAPER D

Committee : LIAISON COMMITTEE

Date : 27 SEPTEMBER 2001

Title : AN OVERARCHING SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

REPORT OF THE HEAD OF SELECT COMMITTEE SUPPORT

PURPOSE

This report is written in response to the resolution agreed at Full Council on 20 June 2001 :

“That a report be prepared by the Head of Select Committee Support for the Liaison Committee on the implications of establishing an overarching Scrutiny Committee.”

BACKGROUND

1. Local Authorities with a population in excess of 85,000 are required to adopt Executive arrangements that accord with provisions set out in the Local Government Act 2000.

2. This Council resolved to pilot new arrangements from April 2000 when an Executive and six Select Committees were established. These arrangements were subsequently modified in line with Government guidance. A revised Constitution was adopted by Full Council on 12 April 2001.

3. In adopting the new Constitution in April, Council recognised that certain working arrangements consistent with the Constitution could only be implemented when the legislative changes delayed by the general election had been implemented.

4. Both the guidelines and the legislation behind the Modernising Agenda have been reviewed in response to the resolution agreed by Full Council on 20 June 2001.

5. The Local Government Act 2000 requires that:

“Executive arrangements by a local authority must include provision for the appointment by the local authority of one or more committees of the authority (referred to ......... as overview and scrutiny committees).”

The Act also requires that the local authority provides overview and scrutiny committees with specific powers to scrutinise decisions made by the Executive or Full Council and to make reports and recommendations in respect of any functions which are the responsibility of the Executive or Full Council.

In addition, Government guidance on Modular Constitutions for English Local Authorities indicates that Councils may establish:

“a central co-ordinating committee ...... which could be a stand alone committee or could be the parent committee for all the overview and scrutiny functions ..... it could consist of chairs of individual overview and scrutiny committees."

6. In terms of Full Council’s resolution on 20 June 2001, the following three options could be considered:

(a) Option 1:

Establish an overarching Scrutiny Committee with powers of overview and scrutiny similar to those currently given to existing Select Committees:

(i) Similar powers would conflict with current terms of reference for existing Select Committees. Should, for example, an overarching Scrutiny Committee have powers of call-in?

(ii) DETR Guidance makes it clear that ‘Overview and Scrutiny Committees should be powerful committees which meet in public to discuss and make recommendations on the development of policies and hold the Executive to account’ – the legislation stresses that the overview and scrutiny function is the mechanism by which local authorities become more accountable to their communities. An overarching Scrutiny Committee should therefore meet in public.

(iii) Whilst the legislation clearly indicates that scrutiny of the Executive may be carried out by overview and scrutiny committees, there seems to be no provision in the legislation for a Scrutiny Committee to be given powers to scrutinise other overview and scrutiny committees. (Probably because scrutiny and overview committees have no decision-making powers.)

(iv) The Full Council resolution implies that an overarching Scrutiny Committee would scrutinise the executive arrangements, ie the effectiveness of the Council’s new modernised structure. (In effect, this would be a formalisation of the role that the Modernising Panel undertook during the modernisation pilot) It should be emphasised, however, that the new Council structures have been set-up at the behest of central government. This indicates that it is not the systems of scrutiny that should be scrutinised, as the resolution implies, but the policies and decisions that are undertaken within that system. Further, the power to alter executive arrangements lies with Full Council with its remit to amend the Constitution.

(v) Members should be aware that overview and scrutiny committees should be politically proportional unless Full Council unanimously votes otherwise. It is unlikely that there would be cross-party support for a non-politically proportionate scrutiny committee.

(b) Option 2

An overarching Scrutiny Committee with co-ordinating powers:

(i) The existing Liaison Committee currently has powers to co-ordinate elements of the Select Committees work programmes, but has no powers of scrutiny.

(ii) The terms of reference for the Liaison Committee could perhaps be amended to give it further powers over the Executive and Select Committees. Government Guidance, however, puts emphasis on the ‘co-ordinating’ role and states that ‘the creation of a permanent watchdog for specific executive members or policy committees’ should be avoided. (and see (iv) above).

(iii) If a politically non-proportionate overarching Scrutiny Committee were to be given the power to co-ordinate the Select Committees work programmes it is unreasonable to think that this could be done without input from the Select Committee Chairmen.

(iv) If an overarching committee only had a co-ordinating role then its power to ‘take an overview of the way in which the Executive and Select Committee process is functioning’ would be limited.

An overarching Scrutiny Committee with some combination of both overview/scrutiny powers and co-ordination powers.

(i) The powers of overview and scrutiny could be split, with the 6 service-led Select Committees dealing with policy review and development and the overarching scrutiny committee taking both a scrutiny (perhaps the call-in element) and a co-ordinating role. (This has been done by Leicestershire CC and South Somerset DC – see below)

(ii) If such an arrangement were implemented, the terms of reference would have to define very clearly any powers of scrutiny that may remain with the 6 Select Committees.

7. Research indicates that of 31 randomly selected local authorities engaged in Modernising, just 6 had established committees that could be described as having an overarching scrutiny role, co-ordinating role, or combination of both. In summary these authorities are:

(i) Norfolk County Council where a Cabinet Scrutiny Committee has been established with powers of call-in and 9 Review Panels which advise executive members on policy.

(ii) Leicestershire County Council where a Scrutiny Commission has been established, that acts as a co-ordinating body with powers of call-in. It operates alongside 4 overview and scrutiny committees.

(iii) Cheshire County Council has a Performance and Overview Committee overseeing the scrutiny role, but may be reverting to a committee based system to deal with policy review and development.

(iv) Suffolk County Council has a Scrutiny Committee which holds the Executive to account and has powers of call-in. It also has 4 Theme Panels to review and comment on policy developments.

(v) South Somerset District Council has a Scrutiny Committee with powers of call-in that also scrutinises the outcomes of Council policy and strategy. It has 5 separate cross-cutting Strategy Groups that review and develop policy.

(vi) Bedfordshire County Council has a Scrutiny Committee to scrutinise resolutions of the Executive Committee and the performance of the County Council and the Executive Committee. The Council has 4 separate Select Committees.

Members are invited to indicate if they would like officers to arrange visits to any of these, or other, authorities.

8. Whether or not Council determines to introduce an Overarching Scrutiny Committee arrangements for operation of the Liaison Committee could usefully be reviewed.

9. In terms of effective Scrutiny, members should note that the Council’s constitution provides that: “Any member of a Select Committee shall be entitled to give notice to the Proper Officer that he/she wishes an item relevant to the functions of the Committee to be included on the agenda for the next available meeting of the Committee. On receipt of such a request the Proper Officer will ensure that it is included on the next available agenda.”

10. Existing powers of scrutiny rests with six Select Committees. The expectation is that members of all parties scrutinise Council business in a transparent, accountable manner in public.

11. Political proportionality rules indicate that opposition parties currently hold at least 4 seats on each Select Committee; a membership sufficient to initiate call-in of a decision, given Council’s adopted Constitution.

12. All members have opportunities to ask searching questions at existing Select Committees, Executive and Full Council, to promote the culture of effective scrutiny.

CONCLUSION

The resolution agreed at Full Council sought to identify the implications of establishing an overarching Scrutiny Committee. This report has identified many of those implications that in summary are highlighted as follows:

(i) The Constitution would need to be amended.

(ii) Costs to the Council are likely to increase, (an additional committee will incur additional costs linked to meeting frequency, officer support arrangements etc.)

(iii) Effort is likely to be duplicated in that powers of a new committee would need to at least match those of existing Select Committees. Alternatively, powers of existing Select Committees could be reduced.

(iv) If membership of a new overarching Scrutiny Committee was to be non-politically proportionate, the agreement of all members at Full Council would be required.

(v) The Liaison Committee’s role may become superfluous, to some extent countering predicted cost increases identified in (ii) above.

In preparing this report, attention has been drawn towards arrangements for effective operation of the Liaison Committee. It is submitted that it would be both consistent with the Modernising Agenda and appropriate for the Liaison Committee to recommend formalising arrangements for Liaison Committee meetings through the introduction of Procedure Rules. Draft Procedure Rules are attached to this report as Appendix 1.

Contact Point : Rob Owen, ☎ 823801

ROB OWEN

Select Committee Support