Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Fiona Barber, Independent Member.

Apologies for absence were also received from Councillors Cooke and Dawood as members of the Overview Select Committee.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they might have in the business to be discussed.

Councillor Sood declared an Other Disclosable Interest as Chair of the Leicester Council of Faiths and as a patron of CLASP.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct the interest was not considered so significant that it was likely to prejudice Councillor Sood’s judgement of the public interest. Councillor Sood was not, therefore, required to withdraw from the meeting during consideration and discussion on the item.

The Council’s Overview Select Committee considered a briefing at its meeting on 15 January 2015 on how decisions on the procurement of goods, services and contracts are taken at the Council.  During the discussion on the item, concerns were expressed by members on the implications of a note from the City Barrister on member involvement in procurement exercises.  As a result, the Chair of Standards was requested to arrange a special meeting of the Standards Committee to discuss these issues and report back to a future meeting of the Overview Select Committee.

The briefing note from the City Barrister is attached at Appendix A.  The minute extract for the Overview Select Committee meeting is shown below.

EXTRACT FROM THE OVERVIEW SELECT COMMITTEE MINUTES for the meeting held on 15 JANUARY 2015

The Council’s Overview Select Committee had considered a briefing note at its meeting on 15 January 2015 on how decisions on the procurement of goods, services and contracts were taken at the Council. During the discussion on the item, concerns were expressed by members on the implications of the briefing note from the City Barrister on member involvement in procurement exercises. As a result, the Chair of Standards was requested to arrange a special meeting of the Standards Committee to discuss these issues and report back to a future meeting of the Overview Select Committee.

The briefing note from the City Barrister was circulated to Members prior to the meeting. 

The minute extract from the Overview Select Committee meeting is shown below.

EXTRACT FROM THE OVERVIEW SELECT COMMITTEE MINUTES for the meeting held on 15 JANUARY 2015

The Chair commented that this item had generated considerable discussion at the Overview Select Committee.  The discussion at this meeting was not about the procurement process itself but about the involvement of members in the procurement process.  Procurement had received poor national press in recent years and it was important for public confidence that best practice was maintained in Leicester.

The Monitoring Officer stated that he had been asked by the Chair of the Overview Select Committee to prepare a briefing note on the involvement of members in the procurement process.  The purpose of the note was not to restrict members’ legitimate activities as an elected councillor.  He had often been asked to interpret members’ involvement in casework and had consistently advised members as liberally as possible in line with approved political conventions.  He recalled only two instances where he had advised members not to take part in relation to a child protection issue and a prosecution under the Council’s enforcement policy.  However, there were parts of the procurement process relating to the period for evaluation of bids and before a preferred bidder was selected, where it was not appropriate for members to be involved.

Members discussed the issues in detail and made the following observations and comments:-

a)         It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

The Monitoring Officer reported that the Chair and Vice Chair had agreed to allow the item to be discussed as a matter of other urgent business in accordance with Rule 4(2) of Part 4 E of the Constitution – Scrutiny Procedure Rules.

The Monitoring Officer stated that the Committee had granted dispensations in the previous two years for Councillors who were Council tenants or whose family members were Council tenants to enable them to participate in discussions on the Council’s Budget  2015/16 at the next Council meeting.  This would allow Councillors to remain in the Chamber to discuss the Budget Report and in particular the Housing Revenue Account report when, as Council tenants, they might otherwise have a prejudicial Other Disclosable Interest  where any proposed changes to Council tenants’ rents and services was discussed.

RESOLVED:

That a dispensation be granted to any Councillor who is a Council tenant, or has a family members who is a Council tenant, to enable them to take part in the discussion on the Councils Budget for 2015/16 in relation to any proposed changes to Council tenants’ rents and services.

The Chair declared the meeting closed at 5.47 pm.