Issue - meetings

REPORT OF THE LEGAL MANAGER / DEPUTY MONITORING OFFICER.

The report updates Members of the Committee on the LLG Code of Practice on Good Governance for Local Authority Statutory Officers. It contains a summary of the key objectives, roles and responsibilities.

RESOLVED:

(1)   That the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee noted the content of the report and Appendix A, and make any suggestions on future actions, particularly with reference to 7.6 and 7.7 of this report.

(2)   That the Code would be circulated as proposed under section 7.7 of the report.

(3)   That the Committee supported that the Council should formally adopt the Code as proposed.

REASON FOR DECISION: To ensure good governance within the Council.

Audio recording – 1 hour 1 minute 58 seconds

The Service Director – Resources presented the report entitled ‘Code for Statutory Officers (Head of Paid Service, Section 151 and Monitoring Officers)’ and highlighted that:

·       The Code ensured the good governance of the Council and had been presented to the Standards Committee in October 2024 for comments.

·       The Code covered the Statutory Officers namely, the Head of Paid Services, the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer, often referred to as the ‘Golden Triangle’.

·       The Council was required by statute to have these key Officers.

·       The Code summarised what the Council should do to ensure that they operated with good governance and that they had suitable measure in place to be efficient and listened to.

·       The Code sets out the requirements for resources and for Officers to share information, by communicating with each other. It was felt that the Code was already being achieved but needed to be formalised.

The following Members asked questions:

·       Councillor Ruth Brown

·       Councillor Paul Ward

·       Independent Member John Cannon

In response to questions, the Service Director – Resources advised that:

·       Additional recommendations could be proposed and seconded by Members of the Committee.

·       Investigations would be made with the Legal Team regarding formally adopting the Code.

·       The Golden Triangle roles had deputies, for the Section 151 Officer it was Antiono Ciampa, Isabelle Alajooz was the Deputy Monitoring Officer and the Service Directors deputised for the Head of Paid Services.

·       It may be prudent to have a more formal plan for any long-term absences of the Head of Paid Services

·       Deputies were invited to attend the Statutory Officers Group meetings and there was ongoing work on their training and the Statutory Officers training.

·       The foundations of the Code were already in place and adopting the Code would strengthen and formalise those procedures.

·       The Monitoring Officer in their role as Service Director - Legal and Communities was not able to deputise for the Head of Paid Services. The Section 151 Officer was able to deputise for the Head of Paid Services.

In response to a question the Head of Assurance referred to paragraph 8.1 of the report, Act Effectively and referenced the effective two-way support that Statutory Officers and the internal and external auditors provided.

Councillor Ruth Brown proposed, with two additional recommendations, and this was

seconded by Councillor Dominic Griffiths and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED:

(1)   That the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee noted the content of the report and Appendix A, and make any suggestions on future actions, particularly with reference to 7.6 and 7.7 of this report.

(2)   That the Code would be circulated as proposed under section 7.7 of the report.

(3)   That the Committee supported that the Council should formally adopt the Code as proposed.

REASON FOR DECISION: To ensure good governance within the Council.