Agenda item - Chair's Communications

3.1      The Chair provided the following communications:

          “Welcome once again to this meeting of the Council’s Audit, Standards and General Purposes Committee, which I am happy to chair in Councillor West’s absence. This Committee plays a key role in reviewing the Council’s governance arrangements and in providing the oversight, support and challenge needed to ensure that the organisation is run well, and in a way which best serves our city.

You will likely be aware that on 16th May full Council decided to adopt an executive system. As a result of that decision, the terms of reference have been extended to include delegations over and above those carried out by the old Audit & Standards Committee. So as well the audit and standards related functions which form a key part of this Committee’s governance-related delegations, it is now responsible for making recommendations to full Council regarding such matters as proposals made by the Independent Renumeration Panel and suggestions as to how certain parts of the Council’s Constitution might be updated. In addition, this Committee has been charged with performing those non-executive functions that are not specifically delegated to another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council. I am informed that the delegation is framed in a purposefully general way so that this Committee may receive reports on a range of functions that may not be determined by the Executive, or Cabinet. This category of decision includes the adoption of HR polices and the determination of certain rights of way issues. This part of the Committee’s business is expected to preoccupy a relatively low proportion of this Committee’s workload, and information will be provided to members to enable them to engage appropriately with relevant topics as and when the need arises. We will have the opportunity to discuss this in due course, if members decide to call the Constitution Matters Report on the agenda.”