Contact Officer: Pat Jones (Principal Scrutiny Officer), Tel 01865 252191, phjones@oxford.gov.uk

The Head of Law and Governance submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) concerning scrutiny arrangements for 2013/14. Pat Jones, Principal Scrutiny Officer presented the report to the Committee and provided some background and context.

The following points/observations were made by the Committee:-

• Discussion around the autonomy of panels – some members felt they could be completely autonomous, whilst others believed they should report their recommendations back to the Committee. It was pointed out that, owing to the timing of meetings, panels may not have time to report back before recommendations went on to CEB;

• Any recommendations from panels would be circulated to members, as at present;

• Panels would be scoped at the Committee, and panel meetings would be open to the public (unless during the course of its work something emerged that necessitated the closure of the panel to the public);

• Political balance on panels was desirable, however there was broad support for panel membership as outlined in paragraph 7 of the report;

• Members of the public could be invited/co-opted onto panels as and when necessary;

• The Committee could invite anyone to speak – expert witnesses, members of the public, fellow Councillors, etc;

• The current co-optee to the Housing Panel will be invited to join the Committee as a co-optee, unless a Housing Panel is established; in which case she will sit on that;

• The choice of items for review will be guided by a scoring system outlined in paragraph 15 of the report. Items should have 3 positive attributes, however, the scores will be for guidance and should not limit the choice of review topic;

Considering the unfinished reviews from the last Council year, the Committee decided the following:-

Covered Market Strategy and Leasing Strategy – to continue, Councillor Campbell as Lead Member, aim to complete by October.

Recycling Rates review - to continue, Councillor Fry as Lead Member, panel to be asked to tighten their focus; aim to complete by September.

Enfranchisement and Empowerment - to continue, Councillor Darke to be Lead Member, aim to finish by September/October;

Educational attainment at Primary level – to continue, Councillors Coulter and Paule can replace Councillors Clack and Kennedy if the latter do not feel able to continue;

Helping the High Street - discontinue, issues to date to be passed to the relevant Board Member. This item will be placed in the work programme as the Committee was keen that it should not be lost altogether;

Mutual exchanges between Council Tenants – to continue as per the report.

Having taken all information into account, and taking into account those issues shown above, the Committee RESOLVED:-

(1)    To agree the outline operating arrangements for scrutiny  as shown in Table 1 of the report;

(2)    To agree the starting point for the selection and membership of Panels as outlined in paragraph 7 of the report;

(3)    To agree to appoint Lead members from the Scrutiny Committee as outlined in paragraph 8 of the report;

(4)    To agree how to place the current co-optee within the structure as outlined in paragraph 11 of the report;

(5)    To agree the framework for the work programme as outlined in paragraph 14 of the report;

(6)    To agree the outline scoring system for the selection of Panel topics as outlined in paragraph 15, noting that this would guide decisions;

(7)    To agree to take forward those Panels listed above.