Agenda item

No. 

Name 

Question 

PQ01 

Clive Stevens

PQ01. Firstly, can the Working Group recommend the Council sets up an “Overview or Coordination” Committee (possibly consisting of the committee chairs, leader and others) to coordinate policy development and decision making of the committees? If so under what act or regulation would this operate under (if

needed)?

A1. The legislation that sets out the requirements in relation to the operation of a committee model of governance is the Localism Act 2011 and 2012 regulations, but they are not prescriptive about the structure of Committees so this would be permitted. However, the CMWG are yet to reach a decision on how policy development and decisions will be co-ordinated in the new model and will consider this as part of their ongoing discussions.

PQ02

Clive Stevens

PQ02. Secondly, in addition to 1 above, can the Working Group also recommend the setting up of a separate Scrutiny Committee operating, as the Monitoring Officer points out, according to The Local Authorities (Committee System) (England) Regulations 2012. This Scrutiny Committee would use the powers listed in regulations 4 to 10 and thus concentrate on ensuring that democracy and due process are followed: scrutiny, openness and transparency.

A2. The Committee Model Working Group will be considering their recommendations about the arrangements for Scrutiny at their meeting on Friday 24th February, which will include whether to include the function in the new model.

PQ03

Clive Stevens

PQ03. Thirdly, can the Working Group recommend the setting up of an “appeal process” triggered by a minority membership of a committee (e.g. housing) to bring an issue to the Scrutiny Committee for further investigation? (Like Regulation 6 of Part 3 of the 2012 Regulations but open to councillors who are not members of the Scrutiny Committee)? This could be, for example, due to needing more information, deliberation, consultation?

A3. The process that you describe sounds similar to the existing 'Call In' function where Members can request reconsideration of decisions on one or more of the grounds set out in Article 14 of the Council's Constitution. Call In is one of the matters included in the report for the meeting on 24th February, which Members will be considering.

PQ04

Joanna Booth

PQ04. In the community engagement appendix report, you wrote: "The Community Engagement team prepared lists of recommended attendees for the events with the intention of ensuring diverse and representative groups." Who makes up the community engagement team? In what way were the attendees 'diverse and representative'? Please list their characteristics on which the conclusion: " Each of the sessions were diverse and inclusive."

A4. The Community Engagement Team is based in the Council's Communities and Public Health Directorate. The team have expertise in arranging diverse and inclusive community events and recommended attendees accordingly. Individual Councillors may wish to comment on the specific events they attended.

PQ05

Joanna Booth

PQ05. The area 'the centre' is described as being covered by the location at Trinity Community Arts Centre. That is two miles away from the actual centre. I am curious as to how areas and postcodes such as BS1, Hotwells and Harbourside and south Bristol were covered? Stockwood overwhelmingly voted to get rid of the

mayoral system but no one there was paid £20 to tell you, their views. How were the views captured for these areas?

A5. The Council held four events in different parts of the city, to which representatives from various neighbourhoods were invited. The areas were selected based on the Community Engagement Team’s advice that these take place in the Central, East, North and South areas of the city.

PQ06

Joanna Booth

PQ06. As a research professional, I worry that paying people an incentive to engage in this type of information gathering might skew the responses and provide such unattributed comments as: "Bristol had a reputation as a ‘global city’ and it was important that this not be diminished in the Committee system." How many people were paid to provide an opinion for community engagement and how did you make sure that incentive, and the presence of cabinet members, didn't bias the engagement?

A6. all attendees had the option to receive a voucher to compensate them for their time following advice from the Community Engagement Team. A range of Councillors were present at the events, not just Cabinet Members.

Number

Name

PS 01

Joanna Booth

PS 02

Suzanne Audrey

PS03

Clive Stevens

PS04

Anthony Negus

PS05

Martin Fodor