ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MONITORING OFFICER

SUPPLEMENTARY UPDATE

 

This is a supplement prepared to update the Annual Report of the Monitoring Officer covering the period December 2021 to 24th January 2022.  The Annual Report of the monitoring Officer is intended to support the Council’s Annual Governance Statement.

 

Report in the Public Interest issued by the Council’s External Auditor on 19th April 2021

 

On 1st December 2021, the Audit & Governance Committee received an initial report from the Local Government Association detailing its initial findings.  The LGA also responded to questions from the Committee and the Committee has invited the LGA to prepare a second report in approximately six months’ time in addition to the existing commitment of a report in December 2022.

 

The report from the LGA can be found at here: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=437&MId=13017&Ver=4

 

Officers have continued to make progress against the Action Plan approved by Full Council, and the revised draft Constitution has been published in readiness for consideration by the Audit & Governance Committee on 2nd February 2022 here: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=437&MId=13018&Ver=4

 

The Joint Standards Committee invited Hoey Ainscough to draft a flowchart to be a mandatory annex to all council agendas to support Members identifying whether or not they have a conflict of interest.  This flowchart will be considered by the Joint Standards Committee on 24th January 2022, and should it be approved its use will be immediately implemented.

 

The Constitution

 

Subject to the Committee’s approval, the revised draft Constitution will be recommended for Full Council at its meeting on 24th March 2022, for consideration, immediate adoption and implementation.  Training is currently being planned as it will be required for both Members and Officers in respect of raising awareness of the constitution. 

 

 

 

 

 

Member Code of Conduct

 

At its meeting in November 2021, the Joint Standards Committee sought further amendments from Hoey Ainscough in respect of the procedures supporting the implementation of the Code of Conduct especially with regards to the handling of complaints once received by the Monitoring Officer.  The Committee has also commissioned Hoey Ainscough to review the Relations between Officers & Members Protocol.

 

The Joint Standards Committee will be holding a further meeting on 24th January 2022, to further consider the work by Hoey Ainscough.  Subject to the Committee approving the revised draft procedures and protocols, they will be recommended for inclusion in the revised draft Constitution for consideration and adoption by Full Council in March 2022.

 

Senior Information Risk Owner

 

A correction is required to the details previously published which should read as follows:

 

Incident

1 April 2020 –

31 March 2021

1 April 2019 –

31 March 2020

Blocks of malicious content from firewall logs, web filtering logs and spam email logs

16,373,193

15,830,996

Scam/phishing emails, which managed to evade the corporate malware detection services, were reported by customers to ICT for the Information Security team to investigate

278

238

Laptops which were reported as lost or stolen

0

1

 

Response to Coronavirus Pandemic

 

The emergence and rapid escalation of the Omicron strain, promoted the council to consider its public meetings calendar in December 2021, with the decision being taken that until January 2022, the Council would revert to using its urgent decision-making powers by the Head of Paid Service.  This position remained under regular review and on 17th January 2022, following updated advice from Public Health, public/in person meetings will resume from 1st February 2022 for all decision making committees.  However throughout February 2022, the council will continue to deliver its Overview and Scrutiny function by remote means save for call-ins which will be in person.  This position remains under review.

 

Other Governance Issues

 

Elections

 

The Council successfully delivered the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner By-election on 25th November 2021.  A Lessons Learned meeting has now taken place which was attended by the Electoral Commission and other key stakeholders across the council.  It was recognised that the actions taken to deliver the election had been positive in gaining corporate ownership of the delivery of the election and that no concerns or complaints had been reported.  The Council is now planning for the City Elections in May 2023.

 

Opinion of the Monitoring Officer

 

The opinion of the Monitoring Officer remains as reported in the substantial report provided to the Audit & Governance Committee.

 

 

 

Janie Berry

Director of Governance & Monitoring Officer

City of York Council

 

24th January 2022