Agenda item

Attached is a covering report from the Chief Executive outlining the review undertaken by the Independent Remuneration Panel of Members Allowances. The panels review is also attached, and this will be presented by Mr John Thompson MBE the Chairman of the Panel. The remaining members of the Panel will also be in attendance to answer any questions that members may have.

The Chairman offered her congratulations to Mr John Thompson on his MBE he received this year. She then invited the CEO to introduced his report where he drew Members attention to 1.8 of his report that detailed the new six Service Committees that would be implemented from May 2021 under the Committee Structure he also highlighted that the Panel had made a request that the report would be reviewed within the next 12 months for any changes that may be needed.

          The Chairman of the Panel expressed his thanks for the support from Members and Officers. He also extended thanks to Sarah Miles for her additional efforts she contributed during the review. He advised that main items are linked and that wider research proved difficult due to the fact that there are not many other authorities operating under a Committee System and that given the pandemic many authorities were also not prepared to complete research on their behalf which was understandable. He explained that the Panel decided the best way forward was to share the current Cabinet Members allowances equally between the six new Service Committees with the Chairman in receipt of 70% and the Vice Chairman in receipt of 30% of the allowance. In summary he also echoed the CEO and stated that the need for a review to be undertaken in early 2020 was required in order to assess the impact of the new arrangements in operation.

          Members then took part in a full debate where the following comments were made. Concern was raised in terms of acceptance of no difference between current Cabinet Members and the new Chairman of each Service Committee, due to the removal of executive decision making. It was also raised that a request for a seminar was denied and therefore was felt that Members were largely in the dark with the regards to the new operation of the new structure. The Chairman drew members attention to sections 3.1 and 3.4 of the Panel’s report where these points had been covered and she invited the Chairman of the Panel to provide a more substantive answer. Mr Thompson then advised it was felt that it the Committees would be challenging to Chair as well as ensuring that decisions made were moved forward. He the reiterate the importance of an early review on the new arrangements.

          Other opinions expressed were that it was predicted that the workload for backbenchers would increase significantly and that the basic allowance for these Members should also have been reviewed. It was explained that the remit of the Panel’s review was to look at the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the new Service Committees only. It was also stated that all Members were and would continue to be in receipt of a basic allowance which covers participation at any meeting attended.

          It was then proposed by Councillor Bennett and seconded by Councillor Clayden that;

Each Service Committee Chairman receives £5004.00 and each of the Vice Chairman receives £1,651.00

           During the debate on the proposal there were a broad range of views expressed but overall agreement on the reduction to the allowance for the Service Committee Chairman and Vice Chairman was clear. Advice was sought from the CEO and the Financial Services Manager who both supported the views that were being expressed by Members.

The Committee then took the vote on the proposal put forward and this was declared CARRIED

In returning to the substantive recommendations the Chairman invited non-committee members to ask any questions. It was again queried why the recommendations were only focused on the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the six new Service Committees and not the allowance for the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council at this time. The Chairman of the Panel reiterated that the terms of reference for the review were agreed by the Audit & Governance Committee in July 2020 and reminded Councillors that the Panel were tightly bound to those terms. With reference to the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council had been recorded in the report for clarity and should either of those individuals subsequently become a Chairman or Vice-Chairman of one of the six new Service Committees then they would take the new Committee allowance that had just been agreed by the Committee.

The Chairman then drew the debate to a close, she extended a special thanks to the Panel for their hard work in getting the report together in a very short amount of time.

The Committee

RECOMMEND TO FULL COUNCIL that;

(1)  each Service Committee Chairman receives an allowance of £5004.00 and each of the Vice Chairman receives an allowance of £1,651.00; and

(2)  the recommendations set out in the Independent Panels Report at Appendix 1 be approved.