Further to minute 4(3) (9 June 2011), the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management referred to the requirements of the Local Government Act 2000 in relation to a call-in mechanism and to the Call-in Guidelines and Committee Terms of Reference contained within the Council’s constitution. In order to attempt to make the Scrutiny Call-In process more efficient and to ensure scrutiny call-ins were considered as quickly as possible, the Director had considered a number of options for consideration, having examined the practice adopted by each Merseyside and Cheshire Local Authority, which he submitted for information. The options for consideration included –

·  the establishment of a Call-in Committee with Terms of Reference to consider all Call-ins received;

·  amendment of the Scrutiny Programme Board’s Terms of Reference so that it could deal with all call-in notices without referring them to any of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees, with Members of the relevant Committee(s) being able to make representations;

·  delegating authority to the Chief Executive (or the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management on his behalf) in consultation with the Chair of the Scrutiny Programme Board to allocate the call-in notice to the appropriate Overview and Scrutiny Committee or to the Board itself, for consideration.

On a motion by Councillor Hodson and seconded by Councillor Mountney, it was –

Resolved –

(1)  That the Scrutiny Programme Board notes the bureaucratic and cumbersome way current Call-In requests are allocated, with the associated costs in officers time.

(2)  Therefore, the Scrutiny Programme Board recommends that the Council’s Constitution and processes be amended to allow the Chief Executive or the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management, in consultation with the Chair and spokespersons of the Scrutiny Programme Board to allocate the Call-In notice to the appropriate Overview and Scrutiny Committee, or to the Board, for consideration.

(3)  That, if it is not possible for agreement to be reached by the group spokespersons, the Call-In notice be referred to the Scrutiny Programme Board for a decision on allocation.