Agenda and draft minutes
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: There were no apologies for absence received.
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DECLARATIONS OF DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY INTERESTS PDF 56 KB To note any declarations of interest made by Members, including those restricting Members from voting on the questions detailed in Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992.
See attached note from the Monitoring Officer.
Minutes: There were no declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.
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REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION |
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Review of Virement Rules- Follow-up Report PDF 171 KB Minutes: The Committee adjourned for 15 minutes to allow Members to read the report which had been tabled.
Upon reconvening, the Chair agreed the Special Reasons for Urgency, as set out in the report, as follows:
The report was not circulated with the Committee agenda nor available for inspection within the timescales set out in the Authority’s Constitution because of the short period available to compile the report following the meeting of the General Purposes Committee on 27th March 2013. The report is nevertheless recommended for consideration at this meeting in order to ensure that there is no delay to the review of Virement Rules agreed by Members in accordance with the decision of the Council.
The Committee considered the report which had been requested at its previous meeting on 27th March 2013. At that meeting, the Committee agreed a number of proposals to recommend that full Council amend the Authority’s Constitution and requested that officers draft proposed changes.
Mr Chris Holme, Acting Director of Resources, in introducing the report before the Committee, summarised the key points contained therein, outlining the recommendations and the proposed changes to the Constitution set out in Appendix C to the report and commenting as follows:- · Following the decision of the full Council in January, the Head of Paid Service had set up a working group to undertake a review and consultation had taken place with other London Boroughs with no permanent Chief Executive on their arrangements. The Head of Paid Service would write to all Members when the results of that review were known. · The timescale implications of commissioning a review of virements independently of the wider review were set out to the Committee.
Ms Jill Bell, Head of Legal Services (Environment) summarised the advice in the report relating to the Committee’s original proposal that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee be delegated powers to approve virements. · The Local Government Act 2000, section 21 (4) states that an Overview and Scrutiny Committee may not discharge any functions of the authority other than the overview and scrutiny functions listed in that section. Therefore it would be inappropriate for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to be involved in taking Executive decisions other than in a scrutiny and advisory context as this would compromise the Committee’s independence in regard to scrutiny matters. For example the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would not be in a position to consider a call in of its own decision in relation to a virement. Therefore it was proposed that the appropriate body to delegate such a power to was the General Purposes Committee.
A short discussion followed which focused on the following points:- · The Committee accepted that the role of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was to scrutinise decisions and that it was appropriate for decisions on virements to be delegated to a decision making committee. · Clarification was sought on the approximate number of virements which were currently reported to the Cabinet. Officers advised that an audit of such decisions ... view the full minutes text for item 3.1 |