Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Commissioning

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services introduced the report.  In his introduction he explained that the Independent Remuneration Panel had received a report on the new Standards arrangements in July following Council’s decision in June to adopt a new local code of conduct and continue to have a Standards committee but in a new format.  The new Standards committee was made up of a politically balanced group of seven elected members and two Independent Persons who will be in attendance to offer their advice to the committee but will not have a vote.  The chair will be a borough councillor elected by the committee at its first meeting and the committee has not met yet. In May, Council had resolved that the Independent Person should receive an allowance of £300 per annum plus travelling expenses.  This did not form part of the members allowance scheme and an additional allowance for attendance at the Standards Committee was not appropriate. The previous SRA for the chair of the Standards Committee was determined on the basis of 12 meetings per year, a MEDIUM level of experience and knowledge and a HIGH level of responsibility and risk.  Using the current basis of calculations, the SRA came out at £907 per annum. In practice the number of meetings was much less.  Under the new regime, the Monitoring Officer would be responsible for considering the initial complaint in consultation with the Independent Person(s). This should reduce the number of trivial complaints which come before the committee and as it is no longer statutory committee, the IRP took all this into account and reduced the level of risk and responsibility for the chair from HIGH to MEDIUM.  With an estimated 4 meetings per year this produces an allowance for the chair of the new Standards Committee as £302 per annum. There were no budgetary implications as this will be covered by the current budget for members allowances.

Upon a vote it was (unanimously)

RESOLVED that:

1. That the Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for the chair of Standards Committee  under the new Standards arrangements should be set to £302 per annum, effective from 1 July 2012.
2. That all other aspects of the Members Allowance Scheme remain unchanged.
3. That the director of commissioning be authorised to implement any necessary changes to the scheme of allowances and the Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer be authorised to make any necessary changes to Council’s constitution.