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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Simon Trevaskis
0208 7266000  Email: simon.trevaskis@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

43/20

Disclosure of Interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

 

Minutes:

There were no disclosures of interest made at the meeting.

 

44/20

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

 

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

 

(NOTE: Before moving on to the main item on the agenda, the Chair confirmed to the Committee that it had been decided that consideration of the report on the Strategic Review of Companies would be deferred to a separate meeting arranged for 21 December 2020).

 

45/20

Report in the Public Interest - Action Plan pdf icon PDF 170 KB

The Committee is recommended to:

1.    Consider and review the Action Plan attached at Appendix 1B;

2.    Consider any proposed amendments or feedback that it wishes to make on the action plan; and

3.    Submit that feedback in a report to Cabinet at its meeting on 18 January 2020.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report setting out the Report in the Public Interest (RIPI) that had been published by the Council’s external auditor, Grant Thornton, along with an action plan providing the Council’s response to these findings. The Committee was asked to review the action plan, with any conclusions or recommendations due to be reported to the Cabinet for further consideration on 18 January 2021.

Before the Committee moved on to its consideration of the RIPI action plan, the Chair, Vice-Chair and Deputy-Chair took the opportunity to reflect on the role of Scrutiny and address criticism directed at Scrutiny in the RIPI. It was accepted that with the benefit of hindsight, the call-in on the Council’s finances, considered by the Committee on 25 August 2020, should have been referred to Council. However, in calling-in the Cabinet report it did prompt the Administration to acknowledge the severity of the financial challenge. It was highlighted that Scrutiny members looked to follow best practice guidance and had worked on a non-party political basis in formulating its recommendations. It was also confirmed that an independent review of scrutiny by the Centre for Governance & Scrutiny had been commissioned prior to the publication of the RIPI, with the results of which expected in the near future. Any recommendations arising from this review would be incorporated into the Council’s Improvement Plan.

Following this introduction, the focus of the meeting turned towards scrutinising the RIPI action plan. The Chair highlighted to the Committee, that prior to the meeting the members of the three Scrutiny Sub-Committees had met informally to review the action plan from their respective viewpoints and the results of these conversations would be fed into the meeting when appropriate.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Hamida Ali, introduced the report by welcoming the feedback of the Committee on the action plan. It was highlighted that the RIPI action plan was only one of a range of different reviews being responded to by the Council and a key challenge was ensuring that all of these work streams were coordinated. The action plan was only the start of the process to address the challenges facing the Council and it was hoped that Councillors would start to experience positive change in the coming weeks and months.

Sarah Ironmonger representing the Council’s external auditor, Grant Thornton, was also in attendance at the meeting and was given the opportunity to speak to the Committee about their RIPI. It was highlighted that both scrutiny and audit were committees which provided the opportunity for Members to consider what was best for the Council and residents, rather political forums. It was also highlighted that the auditors had used the minutes of past meetings as part of their evidence base. Following concern raised by Councillors, the content of meeting captured in the minutes was being reviewed with officers, to ensure the richness of the discussion at meetings was capture for future reference. It was the view of the auditors that the action plan created in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45/20

46/20

Strategic Review of Companies and other Investor Arrangements - Brick by Brick Croydon Ltd ("BBB") Shareholder Decision - Directors and Articles of Association pdf icon PDF 118 KB

The Committee is recommended to:

1.    Consider and review the Cabinet report (attached Appendix 1A-1C) and the Action Plan (attached Appendix 2);

2.    Consider any proposed amendments or feedback that it wishes to make on the action plan; and

3.    Submit that feedback in a report to Cabinet at its meeting on 18 January 2020.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This item was deferred until the next meeting of the Committee held on 21 December 2020.

47/20

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

 

 

Minutes:

This motion was not required.