Archived decisions

Contact: Emma Gordon, Scrutiny Officer, Marie Mannveille, Scrutiny Support Officer Telephone: 01962 847567/845018 email: [email protected]

1. Introduction

1.1 This paper summarises the key developments impacting on local government overview and scrutiny in 2007-9. Three central Government workstreams have been of particular significance, these being the Local Government and Public Involvement in Heath Act 2007, the White Paper Communities in Control: Real People, Real Power published in July 2008 and the current Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill which takes forward proposals in the Communities in Control White Paper. The consultation paper Improving Local Accountability which was issued by the Government on 7 August 2008 (and to which the Policy and Resources Select Committee made a response) covered a range of policy commitments from the Communities in Control White Paper and work still in progress from the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. The Government's response to the Improving Local Accountability consultation was published on 26 January 2009 and provides an interesting insight as to how legislation and guidance for local government overview and scrutiny is likely to develop.

1.2 The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 gave more powers to local government to request information from other partner organisations, including bodies such as the Environment Agency. It also brought in other provisions that affect how scrutiny committees work, including powers over the creation of joint committees, and powers to resolve local problems through the Councillor Call for Action.

1.3 Communities in control: real people, real power was launched on 9 July 2008. This White Paper was about passing power to communities and giving real control and influence to more people. The key themes of the White Paper focused on who has power, on whose behalf is it exercised and how is it held to account. The White Paper was intended as a catalyst for change rather than an end in its own right. Some elements of the White Paper were subject to formal consultation in the Improving Local Accountability consultation during summer 2008. Certain policies within the White Paper required legislation which has now been proposed in the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill.

1.4 The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill was published on 5 December 2008. A major focus of the Bill is a range of new rights for citizens to have more information and influence over local decisions along with new powers to hold politicians to account and, where they choose, more opportunity to get directly involved in managing and shaping how local services are delivered.

2. Government's response to the Improving Local Accountability consultation

2.1.1 As mentioned in 1.1 above, the recent Government response to this consultation provides a useful insight into how future legislation and guidance may impact on overview and scrutiny. The content of the Improving Local Accountability consultation is summarised below, together with examples of how Hampshire County Council has implemented - and continues to prepare for - new legislation and regulations.

2.1.2 Proposed approach in relation to overview and scrutiny committees requiring information from partners: A provision of the 2007 Local Government and Public Involvement in Heath Act related to information (other than information about policing or local health services for which separate provision is made - see report at Annexe A for details) which the partners in a Local Area Agreement (LAA) should make available to overview and scrutiny committees of that LAA's lead council. The partners are the partner authorities of the lead council for the LAA concerned. The provision also covers the information which in a two-tier area, the county council or partners (other than a police authority or chief constable) - described in the legislation as `associated authorities` - should make available to a district council overview and scrutiny committee in relation to that LAA.

2.1.3 The Government's proposed regulations for this provision would define the circumstances in which partners must provide information as well as the types of information and circumstances in which information may be withheld by partners (such as personal data).

2.1.4 The Government has acknowledged that many consultation respondents were in favour of the regulations including a specified timetable and format for responses to requests for information, but has concluded that it is best to leave such arrangements to local negotiation and discussion in the interests of maintaining good partnership working arrangements at local level. In its response to the consultation, Hampshire County Council supported such an approach. Moreover, feedback from conversations with Hampshire's district and borough councils indicates support for developing local arrangements for scrutiny in this way.

2.1 Proposed approach towards joint overview and scrutiny committees and area committees: Primary legislation in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Heath Act allows regulations to be made to provide for the establishment of joint overview and scrutiny committees by a county council and one or more district councils in an area. The proposed regulations would give these joint committees broadly the same powers as scrutiny committees generally, including similar powers to request information from partners in the Local Area Agreement.

2.1.1 The Government's response to the Improving Local Accountability consultation shows that it will introduce regulations to enable county and district councils to establish formal joint scrutiny committees to consider issues of common interest within the Local Area Agreement. The regulations will also grant joint scrutiny committees powers similar to those held by the `responsible LAA authority' (in this case the County Council) in respect of partner organisations in the LAA, although the powers to call-in and refer decisions back to the Executive will not apply.

2.1.2 In line with Hampshire's response to the consultation, the Government does not intend to be overly prescriptive on the process by which a joint committee may be established or on the composition, size, duration or operation of any such committee. Feedback from visits to Hampshire's district and borough scrutiny functions has shown strong support for any joint scrutiny arrangements to be flexible in order for all scrutiny to be timely and driven by a clear need to undertake any joint work. There is also much consensus over the need to focus on LAA performance in order to identify topics for joint scrutiny. Potential topics for joint scrutiny have already been suggested and the first Hampshire Annual Conference of scrutiny Members and Officers is due to take place in April 2009 at which the opportunity to review LAA performance and discuss approaches to joint scrutiny will be afforded. Hampshire is therefore well-prepared for forthcoming regulations.

2.1.3 The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill includes provisions to broaden the remit of joint scrutiny arrangements beyond the scrutiny of LAA targets. Conversations with Hampshire's districts and boroughs have already provided the opportunity to discuss how such `area committee' arrangements could operate, including consideration of the resources available to support scrutiny within the County.

2.2 Proposed approach to enable district scrutiny committees to review the delivery of LAA targets: This provision of the Act enables district councils to play an active role in scrutinising LAA targets in their area. The proposed regulations would ensure that district overview and scrutiny committees have similar powers to the `responsible authority' for the LAA (the County Council in Hampshire) to make reports and recommendations on matters relating to local improvement targets.

2.2.1 The Government's response to the consultation demonstrates its intention to provide enhanced powers for district overview and scrutiny functions to scrutinise LAA partners, but proposes limitations to minimise duplication with the `responsible authority's' scrutiny function.

2.2.2 The County Council's discussions with districts and boroughs have touched on the scrutiny of the Local Area Agreement. As mentioned in 2.2.2 above, there has been much interest in scrutinising aspects of LAA performance within joint county-district scrutiny committees, to be convened around an issue when deemed timely and relevant.

2.3 Proposals to require dedicated scrutiny resource in county, unitary and London borough councils: The Government believes that it is important to raise the profile of overview and scrutiny in local authorities and therefore proposes that it should become a requirement to have dedicated resource to support scrutiny. Having considered the responses to the Improving Local Accountability consultation, the Government has now included in its Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill a provision to require county, unitary and London borough councils to designate an officer as `scrutiny officer', responsible for providing support to, and promoting, the scrutiny function.

2.4.1 Hampshire County Council already has designated scrutiny officers, so this part of the legislation has been fulfilled. It is disappointing however that this requirement does not extend to district councils. The implication is that if a joint scrutiny committee were set up in a two tier area such as Hampshire, the County Council would provide the scrutiny officer support. With limited resources to support an entire County, the scope for joint committees to undertake a robust and varied programme of work may be narrowed in this respect.

2.5 Proposals for appeals about a local authority's response to a petition to be considered by overview and scrutiny committees

2.5.1 The Government believes there is a strong case to place a duty on principal authorities to respond to petitions. The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill provides for overview and scrutiny committees to consider appeals to petitions, which will ensure that local people's views expressed through petitions are built into local decision making. Current thinking shows that the Government intends to use secondary legislation to exclude petitions on planning applications from the scope of the duty to respond to petitions as processes are already in place to deal with such petitions.

2.5.2 In response to concern about the potential volume of appeals which may be lodged, the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill provides that there can only be one appeal per petition. The Government also intends to support local government by producing a best practice guide about dealing with petition appeals.

2. Councillor Call for Action

3.1 In order to boost ward councillors' role in championing local concerns, the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act included provisions for a `Councillor Call for Action' (CCfA) which provides all local authority members with the opportunity to ask for discussions at scrutiny committees on issues where local problems have arisen and where other methods of resolution have failed. The CCfA is due to come into force on 1 April 2009, although good practice guidance on how the CCfA may work was only published in mid February 2009. The CCfA complements the increased powers for scrutiny committees to scrutinise partners in their area e.g. through the Local Area Agreement and provides scrutiny committees with the opportunity to resolve a wide range of policy issues. In order for CCfA to be used effectively, it will be important for local authorities to consider making improvements to their general support to councillors' ward work, complaints processes, call-in and petition handling, as the use of such mechanisms will need to be exhausted prior to raising an issue to a scrutiny committee. CCfAs will only be presented to overview and scrutiny committees as a last point of call.

3.2 The 2007 Act also gave powers to local authorities to formally delegate powers to individual councillors to carry out any function of the authority. This was intended to help ward councillors address issues of local concern directly. In Hampshire, individual budgets have been provided to members through the `devolved budget scheme' in order for members to support issues within their divisions.

3.3 Hampshire County Council's overview and scrutiny function is well-prepared to deal with issues arising through petition appeals and the Councillor Call for Action. Current arrangements already allow for any member to suggest a topic be put on the agenda of a scrutiny committee and recommendations arising from the Policy and Resources Select Committee's 2008 Review of Scrutiny have reinforced the committees' approach to dealing with referred items. A framework for prioritising work programmes has been developed in order to keep workloads focused, flexible and manageable, and mechanisms are being put in place to enable Select Committee Chairmen, taking account of the agreed priorities of that Committee, to initiate a response or action on behalf of the Committee to referrals from external sources that occur between meetings. The Call-in procedure has also been reviewed, taking into account changes in legislation and examples of good practice. Finally, all councillors will be informed of their right to initiate a `councillor call for action' as part of the member training programme following the 2009 County Council elections.

4. Other developments

4.1 A provision of the 2007 Act relates to the arrangements for publication of scrutiny reports, recommendations and responses. The 2007 Act strengthened the existing powers of overview and scrutiny committees by enabling them to require a response from the local authority or the local authority's executive to a scrutiny report or recommendations. In Hampshire, a protocol to this effect has been developed by the Scrutiny Team in response to one of the recommendations arising from the Policy & Resources Select Committee Review of Scrutiny.

3. Conclusion and recommendations

5.1 Hampshire County Council has kept track of policy and legislative developments over the past two years and, as a result, has good plans and processes in place to respond to forthcoming regulations and legislation relating to overview and scrutiny. Continued monitoring of these developments will be required as the scope and influence of local authority scrutiny is set to expand considerably.

5.2 It is therefore recommended that this report is noted and that further updates are received as information becomes available.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents that disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None

Annexe A

This briefing note outlines in general terms proposed policy changes to the overview and scrutiny of crime and disorder matters, in anticipation of any impact they may have on the Terms of Reference of the Committee.

Proposed policy changes

· The Police and Justice Act 2006 introduced provisions for the establishment of Overview and Scrutiny Committees for crime and disorder matters.

· The Act received Royal Assent in November 2006. Following consultation this year on the Policing Green Paper, the government is now commencing provisions for the Police and Justice Act Councillor Call for Action that affects District Councils, and the Crime and Disorder Overview and Scrutiny Committees that affects all local authorities. The intention is to have these arrangements in place by April 2009.

· The key provisions in the Act relating to Overview and Scrutiny include:

- all local authorities will be expected to put in place arrangements, either individually or jointly with other local authorities,¹ for committees which will review, scrutinise, and report on the decisions made and action taken by `responsible authorities'² under the Crime and Disorder Act ie. by the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership/Community Safety Partnership (CDRP/CSP) partners

- there is no requirement on a local authority to set up a separate committee if it already has one that includes crime and disorder

- enables the crime and disorder committee to set up one or more sub-committees and arrange for the discharge of its functions by any such committee

- allows crime and disorder committees or sub-committees to co-opt people who are not members of the authority

· Extract from Police and Justice Act 2006 Regulatory Impact Assessment:

` Improving the accountability and visibility of CDRPs are mutually dependent exercises.......There is nothing to indicate that local authority Overview and Scrutiny Committees will not undertake this work but in the event that they omit to do so, as public bodies their activities are ultimately open to Judicial Review. It will in fact build on informal arrangements that have already been developed in may parts of the country - over 60% of top tier local authorities currently engage in scrutinising community safety activity, with the agreement of local partners'.

Current Terms of Reference

Looking at how policies, services and decisions support safe, well, independent, and continuously developing people (adults and older persons); how they are implemented and how performance is evaluated and improved.

· Working alongside the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee function with primary focus on how Hampshire County Council is contributing to delivering the Well-being agenda for adults; crime prevention; crime and disorder; adult social care; promoting independence and quality of life for older people, healthy and safe families; Regulatory services

· Departments covered:

- Adult Services

- Chief Executives

- Recreation and Heritage

- PBRS (Regulatory Services)

- Any other relevant functions in other Departments

Philippa Smart. Scrutiny Officer. January 2009