No apologies for absence were received at this meeting.

Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, please see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Members are reminded to declare the nature of the interest and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it’s the Members’ responsibility to declare any interests form and to update their register of interest form as required by the Code.

If in doubt as to the nature of your interest, you are advised to seek advice prior to the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services

The following Members for transparency declared a potential interest in relation to the Item 9 Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions:

1. Councillor Marc Francis due to his wife Councillor Rachel Blake being the Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing; and
2. Councillor Ehtasham Haque due to wife Councillor Sabina Akhtar being the Cabinet Member for Culture, Arts and Brexit;

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 11^th January, 2021

The Chair Moved and it was: -

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 11^th January 2020 be approved as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair was authorised to sign them accordingly.

To receive any petitions (to be notified at the meeting).

Nil Items

Noted

A copy of the presentation will be made available prior to the meeting.

The Committee received an update from Covid-19 from Somen Banerjee – Director of Public Health, the main points of the questioning maybe summarised as follows:

The Committee:

v  Asked if vaccines would be “thrown away” rather than being given as second doses or to ‘other cohorts’.? Noted that with the Pfizer vaccine there is a risk of wasting the vaccine because of its short shelf-life of 3.5 days and therefore the GP Care Group has had a group of people who they can be contacted at short notice and to date agencies have managed to not waste a significant percentage of the Pfizer vaccine and the system does appear to be working.  Also, when there is an increased availability of the AstraZeneca vaccine this will not be such an issue given that it can be stored and transported at regular fridge temperature like flu vaccines, with a shelf life of over six months.

v  Asked if the vaccine uptake has been lowering among minority ethnic groups and what are the barriers to uptake within the Covid-19 vaccination programme and are there any comparisons in the uptake of the Influenza vaccine. Noted that Initial data is showing lower rates for those from BAME groups aged 80 plus compared to those aged 80 plus and white.

v  Commented that the testing positivity rate seemed high and wondered how confident can LBTH be in testing assisting in the controlling the spread of Covid-19. Noted that (i) overall that there is a high level of willingness to take up the Covid-19 vaccines. However, marked differences exist by ethnicity, with the Black population the most likely to be Covid-19 vaccine hesitant followed by the South Asian community ; and (ii) there is an element of people having concerns about the vaccine however it is important to recognise that a key factor in the over eighties is that people want to go to community-based vaccination sites.  However, the GP Care Group will be contacting those individuals who are not taking up vaccine and talking through what the issues are and how do to resolve those issues.

v  Commented that there has been additional Government funding for increasing that vaccine uptake and therefore how will LBTH be making the decisions about how such funding will be used in the most effective way to target those communities where there is any vaccine hesitancy?

v  Commented that whilst generally communities have high positivity towards taking vaccines agencies should still be pushing testing above national average and seeking to expand the testing capacity.

v  Noted initially the expectation was that high levels were anticipated in the Bangladeshi community, but testing rates were lower.  Whilst now they are higher by undertaking testing in those areas where there is a high prevalence of the virus which has increased the uptake of testing by those communities.

v  Noted that one should be wary about using the Influenza  vaccination data as a proxy for issues around Covid e.g. for the Black population there has  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

A copy of the presentation is attached.

The Committee received a presentation from Councillor Asma Begum (Deputy Mayor & Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Equalities); Ann Corbett (Divisional Director, Community Safety); and Calvin Mclean

(Head of Neighbourhood Operations). In addition, the Chair informed the meeting that Chris Weavers (Chair of Safer Neighbourhood Board – SNB))

was in attendanceto share the Boards perspective on the effectiveness of partnership response and the quality of service. The main points of the discussion maybe summarised as follows:

The Committee:

v  Commented that it seemed be confusing for tenants and residents as to who they should report anything causing a nuisance or annoyance e.g. their Registered Social Landlord or the Council?

v  Noted that through the Tower Hamlets Housing Forum (THHF) which is a partnership between housing associations (registered providers) and the Council has worked hard to make reporting of ASB as straightforward as possible with an online portal Report anti-social behaviour - Tower Hamlets Homes which has meant Tower Hamlets appears second in the list of London boroughs with the highest rate of reported anti-social behaviour (ASB).  With the information the Council and its partners now have there is increased confidence in reporting which in turn encourages others to report ASB and therefore Tower Hamlets is getting an increasing number of reports of ASB e.g. between April and December last year there were 9k incidents of ASB were reported.

v  Indicated that they wanted anti-social behaviour tackled and to reduce the harm that it causes. Commented that all residents have the right to feel safe in their homes and the community, including businesses and visitors to the Borough, which is why it is important that reducing anti-social behaviour needs to be  a priority for the Council, the Police and for other members of the Tower Hamlets Community Safety Partnership.

v  Expressed concern at the apparent use of motor transport to bring people to locations to in the Borough; drift driving and apparently many drivers/passengers are not Tower Hamlets residents? Noted that Tower Hamlets has introduced the Liveable Streets programme which aims to improve the look and feel of public spaces in neighbourhoods across the Borough and to design out issues such as vehicle-borne anti-social behaviour.

v  Wanted to know what is being done to address the illegal use of nitrous oxide for its psychoactive effect? Noted that whilst there is currently no penalty for possession nitrous oxide it is such a big issue for residents and features in a lot of residence complaints and around rowdy inconsiderate behaviour.  Therefore, there is currently a consultation on the introduction of a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO).   The PSPO can be introduced in a specific public area where the Council is satisfied on reasonable grounds that certain conditions have been met e.g. The first test concerns the nature activities that have taken place have had a detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality, or it is likely that activities will take place and that they will have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.1

A copy of the presentation will be made available prior to the meeting.

The Committee received a presentation from Marcus Barnett (Detective Chief Superintendent - BCU Commander - Central East – Hackney and Tower Hamlets); Mike Hamer – (Superintendent Crime Investigations, Central East – Hackney and Tower Hamlets); and Andy Port (Superintendent Neighbourhood Policing,  Central East – Hackney and Tower Hamlets) on views and issues for Tower Hamlets:  The main points of the discussion maybe summarised as follows:

The Committee

v  Expressed concern over the issue of a prolonged abstractions of Designated Ward Police Officers and the impact that, that can have in dealing with anti-social behaviour as opposed to criminal activity. Noted that because the Basic Command Unit (BCU) officers are trained to certain skills they will have to go and police other parts of London.

v  Following questioning of the officers noted that whenever the BCU faces significant abstraction levels they must look at carefully certain parts of the business that cannot afford to drop below what is describe as an absolute minimum strength requirement.  Also, when the BCU must extract resources on the funded posts they always speak to the partner agency to tell them when they are going to have to abstract officers. Noted whilst the BCU wants to maintain an absolute optimum level now as it stands the BCU has all the officers it should have within all the neighbourhood and ward panels.

v  Expressed concern at the use of Section 60s the BCU has worked hard in recent months around the partnership messaging regarding its utilisation in conjunction with stop and search. Noted that the use of Section 60 is very much about preventing and detecting violence on the streets based on intelligence that says it is believed that there is violence going to occur and weapons will be used or violence has happened and the BCU wants to prevent further violence from happening.  It enables officers and others who will come into the BCU to provide support to search people.  However, officers still must justify the grounds for any search in a specific geographical location.

v  In addition, were advised that the BCU make sure that partners and the community understand why and when a Section 60 has been authorised through a partnership message to let people know what is being done and why. Noted that on the issue of Section 60 the SNB has taken its use very seriously and in recent months and have closely scrutinised the BCU on this issue and asked questions about whether there is a need to undertake the various searches or whether in fact the searches could be undertaken under other areas of legislation.

v  Noted concerns about the outcome of an incident that had happened during a specific Section 60 that had been authorised a sometime prior to the arrival of the current BCU Commander.  The OSC Member who had raised this issue was asked to write directly to BCU Commander to provide more information about that incident.

v  Following further question noted details about Operation Continuum that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.2

A copy of the report will be made available prior to the meeting.

The Committee received and noted the draft copy of the Review of 2021-22 Budget Proposals it was noted that there had been proposed new elements for the Council’s Budget Capital Programme, Housing Revenue Account (HRA) expenditure and income and other changes to savings.

Following a full and wide-ranging discussion it was agreed to:

• Defer detailed consideration of this report until the 1^{st of} February Reserve Budget meeting; and 
• Formally request the Interim Monitoring officer’s approval to moving the start time of Monday night’s Reserve OSC Budget meeting to an earlier start at 4:00 p.m. to facilitate discussions.

To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.

(Time allocated – 30 minutes).

Following comments by the Committee the Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions (PDSQ) were agreed for submission to the Cabinet on the 27^th January, 2021 (See attached appendix).

To consider the updates from the Scrutiny Leads

The Committee noted the updates that had been submitted from the Scrutiny Leads (Attached as appendices to these minutes).

To consider any other unrestricted business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

1.    Members are asked to note the Action Log

Nil Items

As the agenda circulated contained no exempt/ confidential reports and

there was therefore no requirement to exclude the press and public to allow

for its consideration.

Nil Items

To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.

(Time allocated 15 minutes).

Nil Items

To consider any other exempt/ confidential business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

Nil Items