Report to:

Governance Committee

Date of meeting:

7 November 2023

By:

Assistant Chief Executive

Title:

Chairing arrangements for Scrutiny and Audit Committees  

Purpose:

To consider a report on the current arrangements for the allocation of Chairs and Vice Chairs of Scrutiny and Audit Committees.

RECOMMENDATION:

The Governance Committee is recommended to note the report.

 

 

1             Background Information

1.1          The arrangements for Scrutiny Committees were reviewed and updated in March 2018 and a new structure was agreed which established three Scrutiny Committees and a separate Audit Committee. As part of this review and restructure, the Governance Committee noted the importance of opposition members to successful scrutiny and agreed that the long-standing arrangements for allocation of Chairs and Vice Chairs in accordance with political balance should continue.

2          Allocations for Chairing Scrutiny Committees

2.1       Officers have been asked to set out the current arrangements for the allocation of Chairs for Scrutiny Committees. The Council’s Constitution provides that the Chairs and Vice Chairs of Scrutiny Committees and Audit Committee should be added together and the positions then allocated to groups in accordance to the number of seats they have on the Council. Within this allocation the Chair of the Audit Committee is appointed from the members of the largest Group not represented on the Cabinet.

 

2.3       The arrangements for the Chairing of Scrutiny Committees are reviewed annually and are next due for review at the May 2024 meeting of Full Council.  When they were last reviewed it was agreed that the allocation of the 8 places (4 Chairs and 4 Vice-Chairs) would be as follows:

Conservative – 4
Liberal Democrat – 2
Labour – 1
Green – 1
Independent Democrat – 0

2.4       The allocations remain unchanged after the by-elections in July and August 2023 and therefore no changes were required to the political allocations of Chairs and Vice-Chairs. 

3          Conclusion

 

3.1       The Committee is asked to note the Council’s current arrangements for the allocation of Chairs and Vice Chairs to Scrutiny Committees as detailed in the report.

 

               

 

PHILIP BAKER

Assistant Chief Executive

Contact Officer:          Georgina Seligmann Tel:  01273 482355

                                    georgina.seligmann@eastsussex.gov.uk

 

 

Local Member:  All

Background Documents: None