Archived decisions

At a meeting of the GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE of HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL held at The Castle, Winchester on 25 January 2007.

PRESENT:

Councillors:

70. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor T. G. Knight who was attending a meeting of the Chichester Harbour Conservancy as a representative of the County Council.

71. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should normally, at the time of the debate, declare their interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed. All members had a personal, but not a prejudicial interest in Minute 74.

72. MINUTES

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 26 October 2006 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

73. CLARIFICATION OF DECISION PROCESSES AND UPDATING OF ASSOCIATED LIMITS

With the concurrence of the Chairman under section 100(B)(4)(a) of the Local Government Act 1972 the report of the Chief Executive and County Treasurer (Item 10 in the Minute Book) was considered in order to allow the Committee to comment given the absence of another scheduled meeting before the Cabinet and County Council considered the proposals.

The County Treasurer explained that the thrust of the report was to support the County Council's corporate governance framework through increasing member and staff awareness of the County Council's formal decision making procedures, simplifying them and improving access to them. At the same time the opportunity was being taken to review expenditure limits, many of which had been set a decade or more ago. The County Treasurer reassured the Committee that approving the proposals would not have a detrimental effect on the County Council's control framework and should improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the County Council's formal decision making procedures.

The Committee considered the proposals in detail and raised a number of issues for further consideration and investigation by the officers. Accordingly the Committee asked that a further meeting be arranged in mid-March 2007 to consider the responses to the points raised so as to feed into consideration of the proposals by the Cabinet and ultimately by the County Council at its meeting on 29 March 2007. The Committee supported the overall thrust of the report but raised particular questions regarding the proposals in relation to grants, expenditure limits concerning tenders and the process for dealing with major projects specified in the Capital Programme.

The Committee also asked that the report of the Chief Executive and County Treasurer be circulated to members of the Cabinet at this early stage.

74. MEMBERS' ALLOWANCES SCHEME 2007/08

The Committee considered the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel (Item 5 in the Minute Book) which were contained in the proceedings of the meeting of the Panel held on 30 October 2006. The Committee was mindful that the Local Government staff pay award was not known at this early stage.

RESOLVED:

That it be a recommendation to the County Council:

That the Members Allowances Scheme 2007/08 be approved on the basis that Basic, Special Responsibility, Child-care and Independent Carers' allowances are increased in line with the 2007 Local Government pay award backdated, if necessary, to 1 April 2007.

75 PAYMENT OF EXPENSES

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services and Monitoring Officer (Item 6 in the Minute Book) which sought to clarify and codify the County Council's position when members of the County Council received "open" invitations from Chief Officers or partner organisations to conferences or seminars or other similar events, and to establish a framework in relation to the making of payments to third parties who contributed to Policy Review Committee, Hampshire Action Teams (HATs) and Executive work following specific invitation.

The Committee accepted the need for "open" invitations to all members of the County Council to be managed more effectively. The Committee was satisfied that members of the County Council should be in no doubt as to whether or not such an invitation constituted an "approved duty" under the County Council's Members' Allowances Scheme and accordingly would qualify for the payment of travelling expenses.

In relation to the work expected to be done by the developing Policy Review Committees and the work being done by the HATs, the Committee was mindful of the provisions of the Compact with the Voluntary Sector in so far as they related to the payment of expenses. The Committee was concerned, however, about the open-ended nature of the proposal to broaden the payment arrangements although Members accepted that not paying such expenses might discourage people and organisations from engaging with the County Council in the context of these evolving new initiatives. The Committee was also mindful that Parliamentary Select Committees had the power to require attendance before them whereas the County Council did not.

Taking all the issues into account, the Committee considered that, before taking this matter any further, the officers should report in more detail on experience of operating the Compact and the impact financially and in terms of engagement of its provisions with regard to paying expenses.

Consideration of the matter was, accordingly, deferred until the special meeting of the Committee referred to in Minute 73 above.

RESOLVED:

That a corporate protocol be established on the basis set out in the report and that, whilst it is not necessary to amend the County Council's scheme of approved duties, the guidance to Members on allowances and expenses be revised to the effect that Chief Officers and the County Council's partner organisations, when considering the issue of `open' invitations to all Members of the County Council, will initially consult with their respective Portfolio Holder(s) as to attendance by named Members having regard to those Members' responsibilities as County Councillors before the `open' invitation is issued and that the `open' invitation will identify those Members for whom attendance will be an approved duty.

76 SURVEY OF ETHICAL GOVERNANCE AT THE COUNTY COUNCIL

The Committee considered and approved the report of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services and Monitoring Officer (Item 7 in the Minute Book) following a survey of members of the County Council in relation to the County Council's Ethical Governance framework. The Committee welcomed the generally positive results of the survey and endorsed the recommendations of the Head of Corporate and Legal Services and Monitoring Officer as to further action which should be taken.

The Committee noted that the report was to be considered by the Standards Committee on 30 January 2007.

RESOLVED:

a) That future training sessions given to members by the Monitoring Officer on conduct should give greater emphasis to members' obligations regarding the Register of Interests;

b) That steps be taken to ensure that members of the Council are made more aware of and have improved access to the Council's ethical policies including whistleblowing, human rights, freedom of information, data protection, race relations, sex and disability discrimination.

77 BEST VALUE PERFORMANCE PLAN - AUDIT COMMISSION REPORT

The Committee received and noted the report of the Audit Commission (Item 8 in the Minute Book) confirming that the Audit Commission had not identified any matters to report to the County Council and that there were no recommendations to make on procedures in relation to the plan.

78 WORK PROGRAMME 2007/08

The County Treasurer reported those elements of the Committee's Work Programme 2007/08 which were determined by external factors such as the audit reporting framework, the annual statement of accounts and the annual governance report. The Committee would identify those issues which it deemed appropriate to progress beyond its standing agenda at its meeting planned for April 5 2007.