Issue - meetings

 To note  and comment on the current  Corporate Committee Protocols.

Following ratification of the Governance Review Delivery Group’s report at full Council on May 21^st 2012, the committee considered revised protocols for the Corporate Committee.

A concern was that the committee’s comments to the Governance Delivery Review Group about how the Corporate Committee should operate were not fully reflected in the revised protocols. In particular there was an objection to selecting a lead Member for each of the committee’s key responsibilities.

Reference was made to paragraph 4.6 which suggested a focus on a particular key responsibility, at each committee meeting, but this was felt not to be practical.

It was agreed that paragraph 4.9 which allows the chair to make decisions between meetings should be further clarified.  The Chair reminded the committee of his commitment to hold special meetings to make any necessary decisions in between set meetings.  He gave assurance that he would not seek to take decisions in between meetings unless they were urgent.  A previous decision taken in relation to the Pension Fund investment was pointed to as an example.

 There was discussion about the pension responsibilities of the committee and it was felt that  better understanding was needed of the matters  to  be considered under the Committee’s responsibility as an “employing authority” .It was agreed that the agenda pack should detail under which pension responsibility future  pension reports were being considered.

RESOLVED

1. That the above comments should be provided to the Head of Local Democracy and Member services and the protocols are amended as indicated above.

2. That the future Corporate Committee agenda packs advice, under each pension item, the pension authority which the committee will be operating under.