Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed those present and introductions were made.

Apologies were received from Councillor Makawi who was substituted by Councillor Mack.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meetings on 27^th January and 24^th February 2023 were approved as a correct record.

Members noted the decision log.

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 5pm on Monday 27^th March 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 Noon on Thursday 30^th March 2023.

Please note, your time allocated to speak may have to be strictly limited if there are a lot of submissions. This may be as short as one minute

The following public forum questions were received for the meeting. There were no public forum statements.

Questions (and answers)

The Director of Legal and Democratic Services provided a brief introduction to the report, advising that three potential models had been provided for illustrative purposes and Members were now asked to clarify their preferred option.  During the ensuing discussion, the following points were made:

·       Policy Committees could delegate matters to sub-committees.  Membership of Subgroups could be any Councillor and did not need to be taken from the parent body.  Matters could also be addressed via Task Groups, Working Groups and Inquiry Days.

·       Consideration should be given to the remit of each Policy Committee to ensure balanced workloads.

·       There were several cross-cutting issues of significant importance such as public health, climate change and equalities that needed to be given appropriate attention in the Policy Committees.

·       Members agreed that flexibility was important, and the remit of the Policy Committees may need to be regularly reviewed to ensure the best outcomes. 

·       The Committee agreed that all items that currently go to Full Council should continue to do so in the new model. It was reiterated that decisions currently made by elected Members should remain political decisions.  Members noted that further discussion was required about how officer delegated decisions would operate, including the options for Member oversight, but the prevailing view was that use of this mechanism should not be increased in the new model.

Following the initial discussion, Members agreed that the Policy Committees should broadly reflect the seven Corporate Themes as outlined in the Council’s Corporate Strategy 2022-2027, with the exception that the ‘Effective Organisational Development’ theme would become the ‘Strategy & Resources Policy Committee’.  Details as follows:

·       The Strategy & Resources Committee would be the same as the other Policy Committees, with each reporting to Full Council.  Membership would need to be politically proportionate, and the options for this wouldn’t be known until after the election in 2024, although the working assumption was nine Councillors. Budget matters may need to be addressed via a sub-Committee.

The list of current Cabinet Member responsibilities and decisions should be mapped against the Corporate Themes and brought back to the next meeting to enable the Committee to identify any gaps and consider the approach to cross cutting topics. To allow for further discussion on this topic, Members requested an additional hour slot at the April meeting.

RESOLVED:

·       That there will be seven Policy Committees based on the Council’s Corporate Themes with further details to be agreed at the CMWG’s meeting on 28^th April 23.  In order to facilitate this discussion, Members requested a breakdown of the current Cabinet Member portfolios and decisions aligned to the Corporate Themes.

Councillors Bartle and Gollop advised that they had recently attended the following meetings to discuss the work of the Committee and engage with partners.

·       City Gathering

·       Mayor’s Community Leaders Forum

·       Bristol Women’s Commission (also attended by Committee Members)

·       Bristol Disability Equality Commission

 Attendance at other Groups was planned and updates would be brought back in due course.