Agenda item

(Report of the Monitoring Officer)  To inform Members about the background to the Local Code of Corporate Governance and the draft Local Code which is to be recommended to full Council in July for adoption.

In a brief introduction the Head of Legal Services Corporate Lawyer – Mr Mitchison advised that the report was related to a report on the draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) which had been considered and agreed by the Audit Committee on 12 May. The AGS was expected to be finally approved, along with the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2007/08, at the meeting of the General Purposes Committee on 26 June 2008.

Mr Mitchison commented that the draft AGS explained the need for a Code of Corporate Governance as part of the Council’s “governance framework”. At the end of the draft AGS was an Action Plan which included as a major issue the approval and adoption of Haringey’s own Local Code of Corporate Governance by full Council by September 2008. However, the issue around the adoption of a Local Code of Corporate Governance goes beyond the AGS process because the Code would be an important tool in demonstrating and maintaining effective corporate governance across the Council. Because of the implications of the Code for the Council’s ethical framework this report comes to the Standards Committee.

Mr Mitchison further advised that the Local Code of Corporate Governance had its origins in the third report of the “Nolan Committee” on standards in public life back in 1997. This third report into standards in Local Government resulted in the statutory Members’ Code of Conduct and supervision by the Standards Board for England and local Standards Committees.   The Appendix to the report was a draft Local Code of Corporate Governance which follows the CIPFA/SOLACE template. The draft of this Local Code had been reported to CEMB on 5 February and 1 April 2008 and considered by the Cabinet Advisory Board on 24 April 2008. The report before this Committee explained the need for a Local Code of Corporate Governance in Haringey and to seek the comments and/or approval of the Standards Committee before the draft was submitted to the full Cabinet and full Council for formal adoption.

In highlighting the 6 core principles defining good governance as detailed in para 6.7 of the report Mr Mitchison advised that the Guidance also stated that Councils should nominate a Lead Officer with the knowledge and experience to oversee the implementation of the new Local Code of Corporate Governance and the processes needed to monitor its effectiveness in practice. This role would be suitable for the Monitoring Officer/Head of Legal Services but there would need to be support from the core officer group, mentioned in the report on the AGS, which also comprises the Head of Local Democracy & Member Services, the Head of Audit & Risk Management and key officers from within the Legal Service, Corporate Finance and Performance and Policy.

Mr Mitchison further commented that whilst the adoption of a Local Code of Corporate Governance was not an express statutory function and there were no legal requirements for the formal decision to be taken either by Cabinet or full Council, given the significance of the document it was recommended that approval to the draft Code be given by full Cabinet at its meeting on 17 June with the final adoption to be resolved by full Council on 14 July 2008.

There being no questions from the Committee it was:

RESOLVED

i.        That the draft Local Code of Corporate Governance attached as the Appendix to the report be noted; and

ii.         That the process and timescale for consulting Member bodies before adoption by full Council be noted.