Independence of Audit and/or Scrutiny Committee Chairs
Case reference FOI2023/02015
Published 28 December 2023
Request
The independence of scrutiny committees and audit committees has been identified in a number of Public Interest Reports as being an important factor in facilitating meaningful scrutiny and challenge within local authorities.
If your local authority doesn't not have an overview and scrutiny system please answer the following in relation to the committee within your councils which has audit responsibilities.
If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny system please note that as audit committees are not formally treated as part of scrutiny it may be that they are treated differently in the council's constitution and policies.
Please confirm whether you are responding to this request in relation to scrutiny committees and/or audit committees.
If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny committee system, please confirm how many committees (excluding audit) are part of that system?
Policy on Selection & Appointment of Committee Chairs: Please provide the council's current policy on selection and appointment of scrutiny committee chairs and audit committee chairs. Please either copy and paste the section of council policy relating to the selection of scrutiny and audit committee chairs or provide a link and details of the section/sub-section within the document where we can locate this information.
Current Political Configuration of Committee Chairs/Conveners: Please provide a figure showing what percentage of current scrutiny and audit committee chairs (or conveners) are members of an opposition party to the main controlling party or controlling coalition.
Response
The independence of scrutiny committees and audit committees has been identified in a number of Public Interest Reports as being an important factor in facilitating meaningful scrutiny and challenge within local authorities.
If your local authority doesn't not have an overview and scrutiny system please answer the following in relation to the committee within your councils which has audit responsibilities.
If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny system please note that as audit committees are not formally treated as part of scrutiny it may be that they are treated differently in the council's constitution and policies.
Please confirm whether you are responding to this request in relation to scrutiny committees and/or audit committees.
If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny committee system, please confirm how many committees (excluding audit) are part of that system?
5
Policy on Selection & Appointment of Committee Chairs: Please provide the council's current policy on selection and appointment of scrutiny committee chairs and audit committee chairs. Please either copy and paste the section of council policy relating to the selection of scrutiny and audit committee chairs or provide a link and details of the section/sub-section within the document where we can locate this information.
This information is contained within the constitution and is publically available on the Herefordshire Council website and can be viewed via the following link:
https://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?bcr=1&CId=332&info=1
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
Current Political Configuration of Committee Chairs/Conveners: Please provide a figure showing what percentage of current scrutiny and audit committee chairs (or conveners) are members of an opposition party to the main controlling party or controlling coalition.
This information is publically available on the Herefordshire Council website and can be viewed via the following link:
https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/council
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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