Minutes:
O&S.42/20
Further to a Question on Notice that had been raised with the Chair of the Panel at the Council meeting held on 11 February 2021, the Chair proposed the Panel approve the establishment of a Task and Finish Group to review the feedback process for Members sitting on Outside Bodies and the benefit to Council of these positions.
The Chair then recommended to the Panel that:
- A Task and Finish Group be set up to scrutinise the means of reporting back to Council and to evaluate the benefit to Council of it being represented on outside bodies;
- The Group would report back with any recommendations to the meeting of the Panel on the meeting on 1st April 2021. The Chair suggested that the Task and Finish Group should consist of three Members of the Conservative Group and three Members of the Opposition Group, and the Task and Finish Group to be chaired by Cllr Barrie Spencer.
During the ensuing discussion, the following points were made:
(a) Several Members felt that the detail of the Task and Finish Group should have been left to discussion following the Panel voting to accept the need for a Task and Finish Group. It was also felt that this was not a priority during the Covid Pandemic impacting on officer time.
(b) Other Members outlined their support for such a task and finish group as they felt that they were unaware of the various representations on Outside Bodies, and what benefit such representation gave to the Council.
(c) The Chair concluded that this agenda item had been in response to a Member Question on Notice and that the Task and Finish Group would be working to a very short timescale with a report coming back to the Panel for the meeting on the 1st April, 2021. This was to allow any recommendations to go to Executive, and then on to Full Council in time for the Annual Council meeting on 20th May 2021 when the representatives of Outside Bodies were voted upon.
(d) It was acknowledged that many of these Outside Bodies positions were a statutory requirement.
It was then:
RESOLVED
That:
· A Task and Finish Group be set up to scrutinise the means of reporting back to Council and to evaluate the benefit to Council of it being represented on Outside Bodies. And,
· The Group would report back with any recommendations to the meeting of the Panel on 1 April 2021. The Panel to consist of three Members of the Conservative Group and three Members of the Opposition Group, and to be chaired by Cllr Spencer.
Further to this decision being approved, a draft set of Terms of Reference for the Task and Finish Group were then outlined. It was further agreed that there should be only one or two meetings of the Group, and the timetable of meetings should fit into the timetable of the parallel review of the Decision Making report.
It was then:
RESOLVED
· That the draft Terms of Reference (as presented to the meeting) be approved.