Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that the Council, at its meeting on 4th September, had considered the following notice of motion which had been proposed by Councillor Long and seconded by Councillor O’Neill.

“This Council calls upon the Chief Executive to submit a report to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee on how to ensure openness and transparency with regard to decisions taken by the Party Leaders’ Forum.”

            In accordance with Standing Order 13(f), the motion had been referred to the Committee for consideration.

            In order to assist the Committee considered the matter, the following information in relation to the background to the establishment of the Party Leaders’ Forum was submitted:

·        In the previous Council, prior to the local elections in 2014, the Council had agreed to establish a Party Leaders’ Forum to allow space for Party leaders to discuss difficult or contentious issues without Council officers routinely being present.  As such, those meetings were facilitated by Jonathon Huish and officers were asked to attend parts of the meeting when specific issues pertinent to their remit were to be discussed.  A short note of those meetings was reported to the Committee for information.

·        The Committee, at its meeting on 22nd August, 2014, had agreed to re-establish a number of Working Groups for the new Council and these included the Party Leaders’ Forum and the Budget and Transformation Panel.  The rationale for appointing the two Groups was that the Budget and Transformation Panel was exclusively a business meeting when Chief Officers would bring draft reports to the Panel’s attention prior to them being submitted to the Committee, whereas the Party Leaders Forum was to provide a space for Party leaders to discuss more contentious matters and seek to come to accommodations where there was disagreement.

·        It was always understood, as with all Working Groups, that neither the Budget and Transformation Panel nor the Party Leaders’ Forum were decision-making bodies and all decisions were required to be taken by a Standing Committee and (except where the Committee had full delegated authority) ratified by full Council.

            Currently, there were officers present at meetings of the Budget and Transformation Panel and a minute was taken of the meeting and presented to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee for approval.  Since Jonathon Huish no longer provided the administrative support to the Party Leaders’ Forum, there was not any officer tasked with attending those meetings and taking a minute of the discussions.  Therefore, there was not any report of those discussions included on the agenda of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee. 

            The Committee was advised that it would appear that there were essentially two options open to it in deciding how best to proceed:

1.     Accept that the Party Leaders’ Forum was primarily established to allow Party Leaders’ to discuss issues in confidence without any officers present.  The meetings would therefore continue without a minute being taken and there would not be any report on the discussions submitted to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee; or

2.     Agree that an officer would be present at the meetings of the Party Leaders’ Forum for the purpose of producing a short note or minute of the discussions which would then be presented to the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee in the same way that the meetings of the Budget and Transformation Panel are treated.

            The Committee agreed that a minute of the proceedings of the Party Leaders’ Forum be recorded only for those items which resulted in a recommendation going forward to a Standing Committee for decision and that an officer be in attendance for that purpose.