Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE of the COUNTY COUNCIL held at The Castle, Winchester on 25 September 2008.

PRESENT:

p Councillor T.K. Thornber, CBE (Chairman)

136 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Dash.

137 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

All Members who believed they had a personal or prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, were asked to declare that 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 save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with paragraph 12 of the Code. The declaration should be made at the time of the relevant debate.

138 MINUTES

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 26 June 2008 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

On minute 132 the Head of Corporate and Legal Services reported that arrangements were being made for staff salary information in generic form and with comparative information to be available through the County Council's publication scheme.

139 AUDIT COMMISSION ANNUAL GOVERNANCE REPORT 2007/08

Kate Handy and Alistair Rankine, representing the Audit Commission, presented the Commission's draft Annual Governance Report 2007/08 (Item 5 in the Minute Book) providing a summary of the work carried out by the Commission during its 2007/08 audit of the County Council's accounts. The report set out the conclusions reached by the Commission and its recommendations to the Governance Committee. The Committee welcomed the news that the Commission expected to issue an unqualified opinion on the financial statements of both the County Council and the Pension Fund. The Committee was also pleased to hear that the Commission considered that the County Council was securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of its resources and that, in this respect, the Commission proposed to issue an unqualified opinion. The Committee noted that the Commission had received notice of an objection from a local elector and that its enquiries were ongoing. The Committee, therefore, understood that the Audit Commission was not in a position to complete the audit of the accounts until its enquiries have been concluded.

The key messages were again good news for the County Council and for the people of Hampshire and the Committee was pleased to receive this independent acknowledgement of the high quality of the County Council's governance arrangements. Members noted the County Treasurer's observations on the points raised by the Commission and were pleased to note that the officers had already responded to the two recommendations in the Commission's report. The Committee endorsed the action taken and planned.

RESOLVED:

That the representation letter set out as Appendix 2 to the Audit Commissions draft Annual Governance Report 2007/08 be approved and that the action plan and the officers' response be endorsed.

140 INFORMATION COMPLIANCE - COMPLAINTS, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION, DATA PROTECTION, REGULATION OF INVESTIGATORY POWERS ACT(RIPA) AND ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION REGULATIONS (EIR)

The Committee received the report of the Chief Executive (Item 6 in the Minute Book) with interest. The report set out for the Committee's information the arrangements in place to promote and ensure information compliance by the County Council. The Committee was pleased to note that response times in relation to complaints received by the County Council had improved year on year since 2005/06 and that the number of complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman had reduced.

The impact on resources across the board of Freedom of Information Act enquiries was also noted and the Head of Corporate and Legal Services was asked to consider and report on the advice received by the Chairman from the Information Commissioner concerning the aggregation of time spent on repeat enquirers' requests. The Committee also noted the complexities as to what time spent on a Freedom of Information Act enquiry qualified or did not qualify for offsetting against the statutory maximum financial limits vis a vis the preparation of responses. Members, accordingly, understood the difficulties as to precise time recording but asked that all departments review their current arrangements so that costs could be readily assessed. Members were concerned about the opportunities the existing legislation presented for abuse of the provisions and about the demands on officer time inherent in the need to comply with the Act such that, in the fullness of time, it might be necessary for representations to be made to government.

141 MEMBERS' ATTENDANCE AT CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

The Committee received the report of the Chief Executive (Item 7 in the Minute Book) comprising the annual schedule of Members' attendances at seminars and conferences arranged by the Chief Executive after consultation with the Leader of the Council. The Committee asked that, for 2008/09 and future years, a cut-off date of 31 August be applied. Accordingly, the attendances listed in the report for events after 31 August 2008 would be reported in the 2008/09 report to Governance Committee in September 2009, including Cllr Mrs Frankum's attendance at the National Children's and Adult Services Conference in Liverpool on 21 October 2008. The Committee noted that the Leader of the Council had not attended the CCN annual conference but had attended the LGA annual conference and the report was revised accordingly. He reported that he had attended the LGA Improvement Conference by invitation to address the conference and, therefore, that entry was deleted from the report.