Agenda and draft minutes

The Committee to elect a Chair for Municipal Year 2023/24.

It was proposed by Councillor Bradshaw and seconded by Councillor Streatfeild- James and

Agreed:

That Councillor Plowden be elected as the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the Municipal 2023/24.

Councillor Plowden was in the Chair for all subsequent items.

Having elected a Chair, the Committee is invited to elect a Vice-Chair for Municipal Year 2023/24.

Councillor MacFie proposed and Councillor Addison seconded and it was

Agreed

that Councillor Streatfeild-James be appointed Vice- Chair.

Members who consider that they have an interest to declare are asked to: a) State the item number in which they have an interest, b) The nature of the interest, c) Whether the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, non-disclosable pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest. Any Member who is unsure about the above should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer prior to the meeting in order to expedite matters at the meeting itself.

There were none.

The Committee is invited to note its Terms of Reference.

The Committee noted its Terms of Reference.

To consider and approve the minutes from 13 March 2023 of the West of England Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 13 March 2023 were agreed.

To receive any Chair’s announcements.

The Chair informed the Committee that a request to call in the decision to close railway ticket offices including Bath had been received. As this is not a decision made by the Combined Authority Committee, scrutiny has no remit to call it in. The Chair commented that he would ask the Mayor of the West of England Combined Authority to express their concern about the closures

The Chair thanked officers for their attendance and the overall organisation who had committed to looking at the provision of extra capacity to assist the Overview and Scrutiny Committee with additional deep dives.

WRITTEN PUBLIC QUESTIONS (written procedure)

1. Any member of the public can submit a maximum of two written questions in advance of this meeting.

2. The deadline for the submission of questions is 5.00 pm, at least 3 clear working days ahead of a meeting. For this meeting, the deadline for questions is 5.00 pm on 4 September 2023

3. Questions should be addressed to the Chair of the meeting and e-mailed to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk

4. Under the direction of the Chair, wherever possible, written replies to questions will be sent to questioners by the end of the working day prior to the meeting.

5. Please note - under the Combined Authority’s committee procedures, there is no opportunity for oral supplementary questions to be asked at committee meetings.

6. The written questions and replies will be circulated to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the Combined Authority website.

PUBLIC STATEMENTS

1. Any member of the public may submit a written statement (or petition) to this meeting.

2. Please note that one statement per individual is permitted.

3. Statements must be submitted in writing and received by the deadline of 12 noon on the working day before the meeting. For this meeting, the deadline for statements is 12 noon on 7 September 2023. Statements should be emailed to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk

4. Statements will be listed for the meeting in the order of receipt. All statements will be sent to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the Combined Authority website.

5. Please note:

If any member of the public wishes to attend the meeting to orally present their statement, they are asked please to notify the Combined Authority’s Democratic Services team of this at the point when their statement is submitted and by 12 noon on the working day before the meeting at the very latest.

For those presenting their statements at the meeting, up to 3 minutes ‘speaking time’ is permitted for each statement. The total time available for the public session at this meeting is 30 minutes.

The Chair noted that six questions had been submitted by members of the public. Written responses had been provided and are available on the website.

Mr David Redgewell submitted a statement but was unable to attend. Robbie Bentley instead made the address on Mr Redgewell’s behalf.

Sheila Roberts submitted a statement on behalf of the Bristol Disability Equities Forum and read this out at the meeting.

The Chair thanked those in attendance for their questions and statements and commented that whilst Overview and Scrutiny did not have any power or remit with regards to the topics discussed, they may wish to submit their comments and questions to the Combined Authority Committee who were the decision-making body.

To receive an update an update on the process underway to refresh the regional strategy.

The Chair introduced the Head of Policy and Strategy (Jess Lee) to the meeting who gave the Committee an update on the process underway to refresh the regional strategy. It was explained that the Combined Authority last produced a regional strategy in 2019 with the Local Industrial Strategy (LIS) being co-produced between the region and government. Since publication, there had been significant regional and national change and it was agreed following a meeting with the Leaders of the Unitary Authorities and the Mayor that a regional refresh was necessary in order to deliver the refreshed strategy. Numerous workstreams were currently proceeding.

It was noted that there had been a number of deep dives carried out and a Peer Review had been requested alongside engagement with the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) Boards, Business Leaders and Young People.

In response to question asked by the Committee, the Head of Policy and Strategy clarified:

1.    The Regional Strategy Refresh was not a planning document but would provide the context for what is being done across the region and would help to implement strategy.

2.    The Combined Authority were not alone is re-visiting the regional strategy; other Authorities were seeking to refresh theirs. Work was also being commissioned with other Combined Authorities to explore ways to lever in more money and maximize the impact of the capital received.

3.    Once the engagement plan was in place, there would be further consultation with Councillors, and officers, from all the Unitary Authorities,

4.       It was recognised that whilst the area had high skills base, the overall net migration out of the area meant that there were some skill shortages. Work would be undertaken to try and retain some of the skilled worked by engaging with the regional Universities and Colleges ensuring that opportunities are made visible.

The Chair thanked the officer for her report and commented that he was pleased with the vision and framework for the delivery of the Regional Strategy Refresh. He noted he welcomed the peer review and asked for further engagement and consultation with Councillors prior to it being approved.

Resolved:

That the Scrutiny Committee noted and commented on the approach being taken to the development of a refreshed regional strategy

To receive an update on progress with the actions in the governance workstream of the Transformation Programme

Daniel Dickinson, Interim Monitoring Officer, introduced his report which provided the Committee with n update on progress with the actions in the governance work stream of the Transformation Programme following the agreement at the informal meeting of Scrutiny on the 7 July 2023 that three additional meetings would take place, providing an opportunity for deep dives on some key themes.

It was explained that the report provided an overview of actions in the governance and structures workstream, a number of the actions that fit within this workstream were completed before the transformation programme was established.

The Monitoring Officer gave an update in relation to Figure 1 - Governance and Structures Workstream and noted the following:

GS1 – Revisions to the Schemes of Delegations would be proposed at the Combined Authority Committee in October 2023 before a more substantive overhaul would be carried out.

GS2 – All Committee’s would have clear Terms of Reference and a training programme offered.

GS3 - Through discussions on role and purpose of the West of England Combined Authority, the question of Leader portfolios can be considered as and when appropriate.

GS4 - this had been implemented very quickly with a much more free flow of information to ensure that Cabinet Members from UAs can request briefings from senior CA officers as required.

GS5 – The Regional Monitoring Officers had continued to meet regularly, with networks having been built with other Combined Authorities Monitoring Officers.

GS6 - Material would be provided to new members as part of their induction process and all members will be offered the opportunity to meet with CA officers to discuss the role of Audit and Scrutiny Committees.

In response to questions asked by the Committee, the following was noted:

In relation to GS3, the structure of the Combined Authority differed from Unitary Authorities. Portfolio Holders could attend meetings of the Combined Authority but only as observers and would therefore have no voting powers.

In relation to GS2, questions had previously been raised about making the Terms of Reference for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Audit Committee more defined so as to avoid any overlap and duplication.

In relation to GS4, there is a weekly meeting of the CEO’s of the Unitary and Combined Authorities. Any briefing requests made by the respective Authorities Portfolios would be discussed and considered at the meeting.

A future peer review would be undertaken to assess what progress had been made and what improvements can be continued.

The Chair commented that he considered there to be some operational and constitutional weakness and asked for more clarity of the approval routes to ensure that everyone was clear on the tolerances

The monitoring Officer explained that the general principles around decision making needed to be flexible enough to allow the Combined Authority to deliver its commitments whilst also having a robust process in place to ensure that decision making was open and transparent. It was noted that some of the financial authorisation limits had changed due to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To consider the proposals and options to inform a discussion on the future operation of the Combined Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny (O&S) function

The Head of Democratic Services (Mark Wakefield) elaborated on this report that sought Committee Members views for proposals to be brought forward to ensure the Committee is operating an effective scrutiny function on behalf of the Combined Authority. It was explained that at the 7 July 2023 meeting there was a clear request for papers for the regular O&S meetings to be circulated much earlier. It was also noted that there had been investment in the Team with the appointment of the Democratic and Scrutiny Manager to help facilitate additional workload of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee discussed the report.

The Monitoring Officer reminded the Committee that that each Task and Finish Group would need to nominate a Chair that a remit and the scope of each group would need to be reported back to the next informal scrutiny meetings.

The Committee agreed to the following Task and Finish Groups and membership.

Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP)

Scope to include:        Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) roll out

BSIP- questions about the monitoring of delivery of BSIP

Figures needed on passenger numbers

Councillors Addison, Randles, Bradshaw, Streatfeild-James, Kent and Plowden.

Audit & Governance Task and Finish Group;

Councillors Streatfeild-James, Gollop and Randles.

Transport;

Councillors Bradshaw, Kent, Addison and Randles

Skills and Business;

Councillor Hucker, MacFie, Bradshaw and Massey

Climate change and Environment

Councillors Randles, Grant, Bradshaw, MacFie and Streatfeild-James.

The representative from Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) gave a presentation to the Committee.