Agenda item
Members Rights to Access to Information
- Meeting of Standards Advisory Committee, Thursday, 15th October, 2020 2.00 p.m. (Item 6.3)
- View the background to item 6.3
Minutes:
Asmat Hussain, Corporate Director, Governance and Monitoring Officer introduced the report which set out the Constitutional rights of access to information for Members of the Council.
It was explained that Members have all the same rights as members of the public including attending meetings, access to reports and papers and decisions. However, Members also had additional rights around a number of specific areas including:
· A right to exempt committee papers if they had a ‘need to know’ (such as being a member of the committee or the information specifically impacted their ward).
· Scrutiny Committee Members had the right to information in relation to any review the Committee was undertaking.
· Specific rules in certain circumstances such as around the financial affairs of the Council or where the council was presenting certain statutory notices.
It was also noted that Members were able to put in requests through the Freedom of Information procedures.
Where Members breached confidentiality rules it would breach the Member Code of Conduct.
The Committee discussed the report and a number of issues were discussed including:
· Member Enquiries – reasons for the rejection of MEs and the balance of the ‘need to know’ and the role of Members. The challenge in balancing rights to access and relevant limits on rights. Significant concerns were expressed that Members were not gaining access to information they needed to undertake their role and that current Member Enquiry processes and procedures needed review.
· The Access to Information regulations were national and were not predicated on the way the Council operated including whether it operated the Mayoral Model.
· Where information is already in the public domain (or is planned to be in the public domain) it may be reasonable to wait until formal publication rather than accept individual requests for information.
· The role of Overview and Scrutiny Committee and how it had the power to ask for additional information on council services but that this must link to a specific review as set out in the Committee’s workplan and did not mean that individual Scrutiny Members could make requests of their own. It was agreed to circulate government guidance on the role of scrutiny to members of the Standards Advisory Committee and to add it as an additional appendix to this report.
Following the discussion, it was agreed that a review would be undertaken on the effectiveness of the current processes for Member Enquiries and the impact of the ‘need to know’ rules with a report presented to the next Standards Advisory Committee meeting.
Ruth Dowden, Head of Information Governance, then took the Committee through a presentation on how the different roles that Members fulfil impacted on their rights to access and use of personal data. In particular, it was important to be careful not to use data for other work where it had been provided for a specific reason. Data must only be stored as long as it was required. She would be providing an updated training session for Members, including co-opted Members, in the near future.
RESOLVED
1. That the report be noted.
2. That the agreed officer actions around reviewing the Member Enquiry process and providing Data Protection training to Members set out above be noted.
Supporting documents:
- Members Rights to Access to Information, item 6.3 PDF 431 KB
- Appendix 1 - Acess to Information Procedure Rules, item 6.3 PDF 363 KB
- Appendix 2 - Member Officer Relations Protocol, item 6.3 PDF 256 KB
- Statutory_Guidance_on_Overview_and_Scrutiny_in_Local_and_Combined_Authorities, item 6.3 PDF 347 KB