Committee details

Scrutiny Committees

There are four Scrutiny Committees that support the work of the Executive and the Council as a whole. They allow Members to consider Council matters in greater detail leading to reports and recommendations which advise Executive on its policies, budget and service delivery. They may also be consulted by the Executive on forthcoming decisions and the development of policy.

The Committees monitor the decisions of the Executive or an individual Member of the Cabinet. It can, in certain circumstances, consider ‘calling-in’ a decision that has been made by the Executive or an individual member of the Cabinet but not yet implemented. This enables the Committee to consider whether the decision is appropriate and ensure that all evidence has been presented to Executive for it to make the right decision.

The Committee reviews the Council’s performance within the Performance Management Framework and makes recommendations to the Executive/Service areas as appropriate, to ensure good performance levels are maintained.

The Committees also receive requests from Members in respect of Councillor Calls for Action.

Each Scrutiny Committee sets a Work Programme of internal scrutiny for the year and monitors progress against it. The Council’s Forward Plan of Key Decisions & Items to be Considered in Private, is considered at every meeting to enable advanced consideration of proposed key decisions.

Customer Services Scrutiny Committees

The Customer Services Scrutiny Committee has the following specific responsibilities:

- BDC Housing, including Strategic Housing

- Emergency Planning

- Revenues and Benefits

- Street Scene

- Grounds maintenance

- Customer Services and Customer Standards

- ICT

- Communications

- Waste collection

- Monitoring Corporate Complaints

- Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman – complaints and annual letter

The Customer Services Scrutiny Committee may also cover the following areas:

- Environment

- Finance

- Transformation Programme

- Environmental Health

- Governance

- Legal Requirements

- Staffing and other resources for projects

- Elections

- Performance monitoring of assigned service areas