Agenda and minutes

At this point, members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point any personal or prejudicial interests they had in the business on the agenda.  No interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 19 May 2006.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the meeting of 19 May 2006 be approved and signed as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak, regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the remit of the Standards Committee, may do so.  The deadline for registering is 10 am on Thursday 5 October 2006.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme. 

To review the workplan for the Standards Committee for the 2006/07 municipal year.

Members received a report which detailed areas of work to be considered for inclusion in the workplan for Standards Committee.  Members agreed that all should be included and agreed a timescale for commencement of each area of work as shown in annex 1:

RESOLVED: (i) That the amended workplan, at Annex 1 of the minutes, be approved.

The purpose of this report is to advise Standards Committee of the progress made to date in respect of the Officer Governance Group work programme.

Members considered a report which detailed the progress made to date in respect of the Officer Governance Group work programme.

It was noted that the officer group dealt with corporate governance issues and provided a vehicle for exercising the on-going stewardship responsibilities of the S151 Officer and Monitoring Officer.  Also, that any matters arising in the future would be reported to Standards Committee.

The key issues to be addressed by the group were detailed in annex A, and the report detailed progress made to date and highlighted those areas where key work was outstanding.  These included:

·         Stakeholder awareness and information work

·         Post implementation roll out and training work

·         Strategic decision making and reporting

Annex C of the report detailed the day to day working procedures that the council followed, which could be used by the District Auditors to evidence ways of working.

RESOLVED:             That Members note:

(i)                 The role and function of the Officer Governance Group as set out in the report and annexes A & B.

(ii)               The annual work programme, progress made to date, and the key issues outstanding

(iii)             The intention of the Officer Governance Group to report any matters relating to their work to Standards Committee Members should they arise in the future