AT A MEETING of the INDEPENDENT REMUNERATION PANEL of the County Council held at The Castle, Winchester on Monday, 30 June 2003.

PRESENT

Professor Malcolm Grant (Chairman); G Boutle; F H M Quick.

Also in attendance Mr K E Tyson and Councillors Mrs S M Glasspool, DL and

M J Woodhall.

The Panel received representations from Mr Tyson and Councillor Woodhall and gave consideration to written representations received from Councillors R J Baulk;

A P Collett; E F Gale; M J Kendal; R H Price and M J Roberts and

Messrs J J Dawson and R Lindley (Co-opted Members).

Mr K E Tyson

Mr Tyson expressed the view that any payment to Councillors should be based on performance and related to their ability. He was of the opinion that most Councils were controlled by a caucus of people with the majority of Members not making any contribution to the running of the Council.

Councillor M J Woodhall

Councillor Woodhall requested the Panel to give consideration to travel allowances being based on the capacity of the engine of the car and not a flat rate for all vehicles as this penalised those with larger cars. He answered the Panel's questions on the matters they had to consider. He was of the opinion that the basic allowance was fair and that it should be indexed to Local Government Pay. He thought that all allowances including special responsibilities should be pensionable.

After hearing the representations Members gave consideration to:-

1. Basic Allowance

Members RECOMMENDED that the basic allowance of £10,670 per annum, as recently agreed by the County Council should continue; and that the Scheme of Allowances should provide that this should be automatically increased annually in line with Hampshire Management Grade pay increases, starting from 1 April 2004.

2. Special Responsibility Allowance

Members RECOMMENDED that the special responsibility allowances (as shown in the appendix hereto) recently agreed by the County Council should continue and that these should increase in line with Hampshire Management Grade pay increases from 1 April 2004.

Consideration was given to special responsibility allowances for the political spokesmen on the Health Review Committee and they RECOMMENDED that the same allowances be paid as for the political spokesmen on the Policy Review Committees and be backdated to 1 May 2003.

Members also gave consideration to the written request by Councillor Baulk for a special responsibility allowance for his role as "e" champion and the letter concerning this request from the Leader of the County Council. They RECOMMENDED such a special responsibility allowance was not appropriate.

3. Full Review

Members RECOMMENDED that a full review of all allowances including special responsibility allowances to be carried out by the Panel in 2005.

4. Suspension of Allowances

Members RECOMMENDED that the Scheme of Allowances should provide that, when a Member of the Council was suspended from all duties, all allowances, including travel, dependents' carers' and childcare allowances, should be withheld for the period of the suspension. Where a Member was partially suspended, any special responsibility allowance relating to any duties from which the Member was wholly suspended should be withheld for that period. For other cases of partial suspension it was simply not possible to set clear rules in the Scheme of Allowances, given the possible variety of circumstances, but they assumed that such Members would agree to a voluntary suspension of their allowances as appropriate .

5. Dependants' Carers' Allowance

Members received the report of the Chief Executive and RECOMMENDED that childcare and Dependants' Carers' Allowances should be made at the rate paid by Hampshire Social Services and that the maximum payable per annum per Member would be £1,000 (Hampshire Social Services allowances £7 per hour for Dependants' Carers and £7.62 for 2.5 hours for childcare).

6. Travelling and Subsistence Allowance

Members RECOMMENDED that all travel allowances including those for co-opted Members, Independent Members and Independent Appeal Panel Members should be at the same rate as the staff travel allowances and that no subsistence allowances should be paid in future.

7. Co-opted Members' Allowance

(a) Independent Members

Consideration was given to the payment of Independent Members on a per meeting basis and the Chief Executive was requested to look at this possibility. (Following the meeting Jeff Pattison looked at the regulations and was of the opinion that allowances must be paid on an annual basis not per meeting. Suggests payment be made to Standard Committee Independent Members on the basis of £100 per meeting and with 4 fixed meetings per year and possibly 2 special meetings per year an annual allowance of £600 be made). Members subsequently agreed by circulation to this proposal.

Members thought it improper that they should make any recommendation as to annual allowances for themselves and declined to do so.


(b) Co-opted Members

Members RECOMMENDED that Co-opted Members of the County Council should be paid on the basis of £100 per meeting and as the Education Policy Review Committee meets six times per year they should receive an annual allowance of £600.


(c) Independent Appeal Panel

The Panel noted that the Independent Appeal Panel were not included in the new regulations but that they were entitled to claim travel and loss of earnings. They noted that the loss of earnings rates had not been increased for the past three years and RECOMMENDED that loss of earnings rates be increased pro-rata in accordance with the cost of living index for the past three years and then increased annually in line with Hampshire Management Grade increases or equivalent.

8. Annual Adjustment

Members RECOMMENDED that the Scheme of Allowances should provide for automatic annual adjustments to allowances by reference to the settlement for Hampshire Management Grade increases or equivalent.

9. Retrospectivity

Members RECOMMENDED that only the Special Responsibility Allowance for political spokesmen on the Health Review Committee be backdated to
1 May 2003. No other allowances should be backdated.

10. Recovery of Allowances Paid

Members RECOMMENDED that the Scheme of Allowances should provide that any allowance that has been paid to a Member whilst on suspension, or any allowance after a Member had ceased to be a Member of the Authority, should be recovered.

11. Duplication

Members RECOMMENDED that the Scheme of Allowances should provide that, where a Member is a Member of two or more Authorities they should not receive more than one allowance for the same duties.

12. Pensions

Members received the report of the County Treasurer and RECOMMENDED that both basic and special responsibility allowances should be pensionable for all Members under the age of 70.They were of the view that it was appropriate to treat Members equally for these purposes. To the extent that the Special Responsibility Allowance represented compensation for a demanding role necessitating a loss of earning capacity elsewhere, it was appropriate that it qualified to be pensionable.

13. Elections to Forgo Allowances

Members RECOMMENDED that the Scheme of Allowances should provide all Members should be enabled, by notice to the Chief Executive to forgo entitlement of all or part of any allowances paid to them.

14. Claims and Payments

Members RECOMMENDED that the Scheme of Allowances should provide that travelling, Dependents' Carers' and Child Care allowances for all Members, Co-opted Members, Independent Members and Independent Appeal Panel Members must be claimed within six months from the date of the meeting concerned.

15. Chairman

The Chairman advised members of his resignation from the Panel as a result of his appointment as Provost of University College London and increased workload. Members thanked Professor Grant for his work as Chairman of the Panel and wished him well for the future.

5MM60703

Appendix

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

MEMBERS ALLOWANCES SCHEME 2003/04

£

per annum

(i) Basic Allowance 10,670

(ii) Special Responsibility Allowances

Only one special responsibility allowance is payable to any member under the scheme. The allowances in brackets will not be paid whilst the current postholder receives a higher special responsibility allowance in respect of another post or if the postholder, in the case of the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority, is not a County Councillor.
£
per annum

The Executive:


Leader 25,750

Deputy Leader 15,450

Education member 15,450

Environment member 15,450

Recreation and Heritage member 15,450

Social Care member 15,450

Economic Development member (15,450)

Community Development and Regeneration member 15,450

Personnel and Training member 15,450

Chief Whip 15,450

Non-portfolio member (currently none) (10,300)

Leaders of Political Groups:
Leader of Liberal Democrat Group 10,820
Leader of Labour Group 7,420

Chairmen of Policy Review Committees:
Policy and Resources 10,300

Education 10,300

Environment 10,300

Recreation and Heritage 10,300

Social Care 10,300

Health Review 10.300

Vice-Chairmen of Policy Review Committees:

Policy and Resources (2,580)

Education (2,580)

Environment 2,580

Recreation and Heritage 2,580

Social Care 2,580

Health Review 2,580

Minority Parties' Spokesmen:

Liberal Democrats:
Policy and Resources (5,150)
Education 5,150
Environment 5,150

Recreation and Heritage 5,150
Social Care 5,150

Labour:
Policy and Resources (2,580)
Education 2,580
Environment 2,580
Recreation and Heritage 2,580
Social Care 2,580

Regulatory Committee:
Chairman 5,150

Vice-Chairman (1,290)

Standards Committee:

Chairman 5,150

Vice-Chairman (1,290)

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority:
(These allowances are only payable if the office holder
is a County Councillor)
Chairman 10,300

Minority Parties' Spokesmen:

Liberal Democrat Group 5,150
Labour Group 2,580