Agenda and minutes

The Chairwelcomed allparties tothe meeting.The Committeenoted theemergency evacuationprocedure if required.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Cole, Brown & Breckels and from Simon Cookson.

To note any declarations of interest from the Councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

There were none.

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public Forum items should be emailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5 pm on 12 December 2023.

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on 15 December 2023.

There were none.

That the Audit Committee considers the Constitution for the Committee Model of governance and recommends the Constitution to Full Council for adoption from 6 May 2024.

The Director Legal & Democratic Services summarized the report as follows:-

1.      The report was before the Audit Committee as per the agreed decision pathway before it was considered at Full Council;

2.      There were a few recommendations of the CMWG which had not yet been considered at Full Council, in particular the proposals relating to local decision making which were included in the report;

3.      Some parts of the Constitution had not been reviewed and were not before the Committee, for example the Financial & Procurement Regulations & Planning and Licensing Codes of Conduct. Some minor amendment may need to be made via officer delegation to these parts of the Constitution in due course;

4.      There remained a few inconsistencies and typos in the current draft and these would be corrected in the final drafting.

The following points arose from general comments on the draft Constitution:-

1.      The Lead Officers from the CMWG were thanked for all their hard work and the previous Chair, current Chair and Vice-Chair were thanked for their leadership. The draft was welcomed and struck the right balance;

2.      It was confirmed that it was the Audit Committee’s role to provide assurance that what was proposed addressed the needs of the Council and aligned with expectations;

3.      Procurement rules would require refreshing in light of the new act going through Parliament;

4.      It was not anticipated that  the emergency decision making procedures would be used other than in exceptional circumstances but they were included as a practical way of ensuring robust decision-making on a day to day basis;

5.      There was no stand-alone Scrutiny function but if the Council decided it did want this function the 2012 Regulations sets out the arrangements needed. Health scrutiny stood alone and flood risk management and crime and disorder would sit with the relevant Policy Committees;

6.      Policy development work would take place through Task & Finish groups, with the option for Policy Committees to also hold Inquiry Days;

7.      It was not anticipated that there would be an increase in the workload of either the Values & Ethics Sub-Committee or the Audit Committee.

8.      Cabinet and Scrutiny had been replaced with Policy Committees and the same safeguards and checks and balances were built into the new arrangements.

9.      It was emphasized that it was not the role of the Audit Committee to undertake the scrutiny function;

10.  A new Code of Corporate Governance would be required in 2024;

11.  There would be Forward Plans for each Policy Committee and an Escalation Panel would ensure that there were checks and balances on decisions;

12.  There would be much greater use of Agenda setting meetings for Policy Committees in order to promote effective cross-party decision making. It was observed that there should be less need for a scrutiny function if cross-party decision making worked effectively because scrutiny of proposed decisions would take place within the Policy Committees;

13.  The membership of an Escalation Panel would not include any members of the relevant Policy Committee who  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.