PAPER C1

                                                                                                               Purpose : For Decision

Committee :    EXECUTIVE

Date :              9 APRIL 2002

Title :              MEMBERS’ INDEPENDENT REMUNERATION PANEL

THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL

SUMMARY/PURPOSE

To consider the report of the Independent Remuneration Panel on its review of members’ allowances and make recommendations to the Council.

BACKGROUND

The Local Government Act 2000 requires local authorities to appoint independent panels to review and/or amend their schemes for the payment of allowances to members. The Panel of three appointed by the Council consists of Dr Declan Hall of the Institute of Local Government, School of Public Policy at Birmingham University. Mr Bruce Claxton, retired Civil Engineer and independent member of the Council’s Standards Committee and Mrs Joy Harding, an Auxiliary Nurse, also an independent member of the Standards Committee. The panel’s remit is to make recommendations to the Council and the Council has to take those recommendations into account when amending or reviewing its scheme for members’ allowances.

The Council’s constitution provides that the panel’s recommendations be first considered by the Executive which can also make recommendations to the Council. Under the Members’ Allowances Regulations 2001 the panel’s report has to be made available for inspection at County Hall as soon as reasonably practical after receiving it at all reasonable hours. In addition, the Council has to publish a notice in a local newspaper which states where and when copies of the report may be inspected and describes the main features of the panel’s recommendations including the amounts of the allowances the panel has recommended should be payable to councillors.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Appendix A summarises the panel’s recommendations. A full copy of the report is available for members inspection if required. If adopted as set out from the date of the next meeting of the Council on 17^th April 2002 the additional budget provision required for 2002/2003 would be £68,000.

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

The 2001 Regulations require the Council to take into account the recommendations of the independent panel when reviewing or amending its members’ allowances scheme but it does not have to implement these recommendations. The Council does, however, have to publish the panel’s recommendations and its own final determination, side by side, as soon as reasonably practical after it makes or amends a scheme.

BACKGROUND PAPERS

1.        Report of the Independent Remuneration Panel on Members’ Allowances, dated March 2002.

2.        The Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances) (England) Regulations 2001, No. 1280.

Contact Point : Barry Townsend, F 823605

Summary of Remuneration Panel’s Recommendations

Table 1: Summary of Recommendations:

15.       The Independent Remuneration Panel also recommends the following:

(a)  That the Basic Allowance be paid at £6,942 per annum, including provision for the voluntary element and attendance at all scheduled meetings and working parties to which a Member is appointed. The increase in the Basic Allowances is also intended to cover the standard incidental expenses that Members incur as part of their general duties. In particular, the Panel recommends that the Basic Allowance should cover the costs of telephone calls from Members homes and other expenses such as the costs of stationery, postage, minor office equipment and use of their homes for Council duties. This does not negate the current level of provision and access by elected Members to those services provided by Member Services such as inter alia corporate stationery and postage and ongoing Member development programmes.

(b)  That a Dependent and Childcare Allowance be not made available to Members at this stage. However, the Panel also recommends that this issue be revisited when the Panel sits again to ascertain whether any Members are being disadvantaged by this recommendation.

(c)  That the Council considers adopting mechanisms of accountability that Members have to abide by for the receipt of their allowances. In particular, the Panel recommends that at the very least that the Council continue to publish attendance records of Members. Furthermore, the Panel recommends that this be done more frequently than is currently the case, which is annually as is the annual publication of allowances each Member receives. The Panel recommends that these attendance figures be published every quarter so that constituents have a more meaningful and ongoing means by which they can judge the formal performance of their elected Members. This is a common practice elsewhere and is fairly straightforward to implement. Nor does it preclude the Council from advertising more widely Members’ attendance records, such as in local libraries. The Council could go much further if it wishes (see below). In addition, the Panel also suggests that Members have the opportunity to fill in a pro forma on a periodic basis to allow them to give an account of their activities outside County Hall. This should enable them to give an account of their own activities beyond their attendance at formal meetings of the Council and its outside bodies. These activity statements could be posted on the Council’s web pages for electors and other interested parties to evaluate. Alternatively, the Standards Committee could have a role collecting and publishing these activity statements. The Standards Committee should also define what constitutes an excused absence from a meeting by a Member. The Panel also recommends that in the interests of clarity and transparency that there is a sharpened definition of the roles Members are expected to perform and these roles should be also publicised in an appropriate fashion. It gives the electorate a means by which they could potentially measure Members’ performances and informs potential and current Members what they are expected to do in return for their increased allowances.

(d)  That the current system of payments for travel and subsistence allowances continues but that a future Panel reconsiders the scheme for those allowances when the regulations are finalised.

(e)  That a future Panel considers the applicability of Pensions for Members when the regulations are finalised and when Members have greater experience of the impact of the new roles on their working lives.

(f)   That in line with current provisions no more than 50 per cent of members should be in receipt of a SRA at any one time; presently, the Panel interprets this aggregate at a maximum of 24 Members.

(g)  That in light of the substantial up lift in allowances and in the interests of transparency that Members are not permitted to receive more than one SRA at any one time.