Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from members of the Committee

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Prince.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

There were no disclosures of interests.

To receive notice from the Chair of any business not on the Agenda which should, in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

To consider the draft pay policy statement 2022/23 for recommendation to full Council for adoption.

The Committee considered the report of the Chief People Officer.  During debate, Members noted that:

i)            From 1 November 2021, Chief Officers had been moved from spot salaries to a new pay grade structure;

ii)           That Full Council would be asked to approve the pay policy statement at its budget meeting;

iii)         That the Government had previously introduced an exit pay cap of £95,000 (including pensions strain) that had subsequently been revoked.  The Government was reviewing that position;

iv)         That the pay ratio between the lowest and highest paid members of staff was 1:9 compared to a national local government average of 1:10; and

v)          That while the pay policy statement set out daily pay rates for senior interim staff, wherever possible such interim staff were appointed on fixed term contracts.

In consideration of the statement, Members noted that the Council’s Constitution delegated authority to the Committee to determine in respect of severance packages, whether any severance package above the specified threshold of £100,000 should be referred to Full Council for decision. 

The Committee requested that officers undertake research into options for how any such future severance packages can be presumed to be presented to Full Council for decision, while ensuring that there are no avoidable delays to exit processes and with specific regard to what information can be made available to all Councillors when considering any such decisions.

Following debate, the Committee RESOLVED:

1            To recommend to Council that it adopt the annual pay policy statement for 2022/23; and

2            That the Committee be presented with a report at a future meeting detailing options for the consideration of any severance packages above £100,000.

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

Having been moved by Councillor Young and seconded by Councillor Jason Cummings, it was put to the vote and

RESOLVED:

That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the remaining items of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.

To consider a report seeking approval to extend a number of interim Chief Officer and Deputy Chief Officer arrangements.

RESOLVED that members of the Press and Public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that: (i) it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 (Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act: and (ii) that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.