To outline the opportunities and risks to the council in proceeding to form a partnership with other local authorities in the West Midlands to create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the West Midlands Safe Centre to own and manage the secure welfare provision on behalf of the 14 local authorities/Trusts.

For this item on the agenda, the Chair proposed a vote that the meeting moved into a private session. This being due to the report containing information relating to the financial or business affairs of the council pursuant to paragraph 3 and the information being in respect of a claim to which legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings, pursuant to paragraph 5 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

It was resolved that:

That under section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Schedule 12(A) of the Act -

(3) The item discloses information which relates to the financial or business affairs of the council and, (5) The information is in respect of a claim to which legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings

And it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.