To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors WLS Bowen, KG Grumbley and RH Smith.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

GUIDANCE ON DECLARING PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS AT MEETINGS

The Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct requires Councillors to declare against an Agenda item(s) the nature of an interest and whether the interest is personal or prejudicial.  Councillors have to decide first whether or not they have a personal interest in the matter under discussion.  They will then have to decide whether that personal interest is also prejudicial.

A personal interest is an interest that affects the Councillor more than most other people in the area.  People in the area include those who live, work or have property in the area of the Council.  Councillors will also have a personal interest if their partner, relative or a close friend, or an organisation that they or the member works for, is affected more than other people in the area.  If they do have a personal interest, they must declare it but can stay and take part and vote in the meeting. 

Whether an interest is prejudicial is a matter of judgement for each Councillor.  What Councillors have to do is ask themselves whether a member of the public – if he or she knew all the facts – would think that the Councillor’s interest was so important that their decision would be affected by it.  If a Councillor has a prejudicial interest then they must declare what that interest is and leave the meeting room.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 February 2008.

RESOLVED:   That the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 February 2008 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

There were no suggestions from members of the public.

To consider proposed revisions to the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules, Financial Procedure Rules and Contract Procedure Rules and to changes to the time by which Councillors must submit written Questions for Council.

The Committee considered proposed revisions to the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules, Financial Procedure Rules and Contract Procedure Rules and to changes to the time by which Councillors must submit written Questions for Council.

The Committee had deferred consideration of the proposed revisions on 18 February identifying a number of matters to be addressed. Revised documents had subsequently been prepared and resubmitted to Cabinet and the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee.  Comments from the Strategic Monitoring Committee were invited prior to Council considering the documents on 7 March. 

A supplementary report to Council from Cabinet reporting Cabinet’s views and those of the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee was circulated at the meeting.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services presented the report.  He outlined the rationale for the proposed revisions, the need for further revisions to the Scheme of Delegation and the Constitution as a whole, and remarked on the need to speed up the process for making future revisions to the Constitution.

Commenting on the proposed changes to the time by which Councillors must submit written Questions for Council, as set out a paragraph 4.5.1 of the Constitution, he emphasised that the reason for this was to allow Cabinet Members and officers sufficient time to prepare complete answers.

In the ensuing discussion the following principal points were made:

·         The Chairman noted that the Committee had deferred consideration of the proposed revisions to allow a number of matters to be addressed.  He considered that the further revisions had provided the clarification the Committee had been seeking.  He also welcomed the intention to review the Constitution as a whole and streamline the process for approving future revisions to the Constitution.

·         It was noted that in relation to the change to the deadline for deposit of formal questions to Council by Councillors that the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee had highlighted a concern that this might not allow Members enough time to submit questions, in particular where late reports were concerned.  The Head of Legal and Democratic Services assured the Committee of the corporate intention to instil greater discipline into the reporting process that would prevent this being an issue in future.

The Chairman reported that he had had a number of discussions with the Leader of the Council about the issue of late reports and the scheduling of Cabinet meetings and welcomed the fact that a regular pattern of Cabinet meetings was to be programmed. He considered that this would assist the Committee in programming its own business more efficiently and help to overcome some of the problems that had been experienced as a result of late reports in the past.

·         That the amount of paperwork being provided to Members was becoming excessive, to the point of obscuring the key considerations.  A better balance needed to be struck in providing Members with the information they required to make decisions in an efficient and business like manner.

·         The Head of Legal and Democratic Services was asked whether he was satisfied that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73.