Issue - meetings

Matter for Decision

 

The Officer’s report set out the 2017/18 business cases for the shared 3C ICT and 3C Legal services for endorsement, the principles of which were approved on 13th July 2015 and 12th October 2015.

 

Decision of the Leader and Executive Councillor for Strategy and Transformation

 

     i.        Approved the business plans for each of the shared services.

 

Reason for the Decision

 

As set out in the Officer’s report.

 

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

 

Not applicable.

 

Scrutiny Considerations

 

The Committee received a report from the Interim Strategic Director.

 

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

     i.        The report said that the 15% savings which had been anticipated would not be achieved this financial year. It was predicted as 8.5% saving for this financial year.

    ii.        Should this recommendation fall within Executive Councillor for Finance and Resource’s portfolio rather than with the Leader’s?

         

The Interim Strategic Director said the following in response to Members’ questions:

     i.        There had been a higher than expected spend on consultants to accommodate the changes in services.

    ii.        There was a commitment to meet the savings target in year 2017/18.

 

 

 

The Leader said the following in response to Members’ questions:

     i.        Figures related to the predicted and actual savings were available on p 245 of the report.

    ii.        He affirmed that if they were not committed to achieving the 15% saving it would not have been included in the report. They had set clear priorities which they were able to deliver on.

   iii.        He agreed that the transformational aspect of the shared services fell correctly within his portfolio but future decisional reports would move to a different portfolio from now on.

 

The Committee unanimously resolved to endorse the recommendations.

 

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendation.

 

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.

 

The Chair permitted Councillor Cantrill to ask a question to the Leader in an update to the item considered on the Combined Authority:

 

Referring to the comments by Mr Barclay, what is the Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) current position on the Combined Authority? Should the LEP stand aside from the Combined Authority whilst investigations are ongoing?

 

The Leader said the following in response to Councillor Cantrill’s question:

     i.        Requested that Councillor Cantrill email him so a formal response would be provided because he had no notice of the question.

    ii.        He had not changed his mind about the LEP’s role within the Combined Authority. It is a matter for all LEP’s and governance.

   iii.        Unfortunately the issue to date had not been raised in the most appropriate manner through the media.

  iv.        At the Combined Authority meeting he attended earlier today it had been suggested that the National Audit Office may investigate.

   v.        From his perspective, the LEP broadened the Combined Authority as he stated at the last scrutiny committee.