1. A-Z of Services
  2. A
  3. B
  4. C
  5. D
  6. E
  7. F
  8. G
  9. H
  10. I
  11. J
  12. K
  13. L
  14. M
  15. N
  16. O
  17. P
  18. Q
  19. R
  20. S
  21. T
  22. U
  23. V
  24. W
  25. X
  26. Y
  27. Z

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Hybrid Meeting

Contact: Samantha Schanzer  Scrutiny Adviser

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Cllrs S Cocks and P Bright.

 

2.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None.

3.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 104 KB

Minutes:

The Committee asked that the minutes clarify the disappointment by the referrer of the Levelling Up Bid item concerning their request for Officers attendance.

·       The Scrutiny Advisor agreed to do this.

The Chair highlighted to the Committee that the meeting that had been scheduled for the 29th September had been moved to the 9th October 2023.

·       The Scrutiny Adviser noted that the time of the of this meeting would start earlier to allow time in the meeting to cover both reports.

·       The Committee understood that the meeting had to begin earlier however wished to start an hour later than scheduled at 2pm.

·       The Scrutiny Advisor agreed to change the start time.

The Chair asked if there were any matters arising.

The Committee noted that there was an ongoing issue with the vacancies in the internal Audit team and asked the Chair whether their concerns can be raised as other Committees have done.

·       The Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate gave a brief overview of the issues and explained that there had been a number of officers who had moved on to other opportunities from the Audit team and that this had left the Council with vacancies.

·       The Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate noted the issue had been raised in Place and Corporate Scrutiny Committee when considering the end of year report, and in Governance and Audit Committee as part of the terms of reference. The Director confirmed that the Head of Finance had made an agreement to return to Governance and Audit Committee with an updated Audit Plan for the remainder of 2023/24, which is likely to include securing additional resource from an external organisation.

·       The Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate added that audit vacancies were currently out to advertisement for applications, and the service was exploring other methods for recruitment such as apprenticeships. The Council is engaged in informal discussions exploring the opportunities that a regional service could provide, but that this was for further consideration.

·       The Chair noted that over the years there has been a lot of movement in the Audit team and a vacancy for a period of time.

·       The Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate explained that there had been a vacancy carried in the team but noted that this had been removed from the team as part of activity to balance the budget. The Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate explained that although there is no current capacity to reduce staffing levels, there will be a need to balance the budget again in the coming year.

·       The Committee queried how many people were employed in the internal audit team and the Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate noted that by the Summer there will be one person in the team.

·       The Committee asked whether engaging the external Audit organisation would be more expensive than if the internal roles were filled.  The Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate confirmed that the Council already deploy the company for some audit and that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Annual Information Risk Report 22-23 pdf icon PDF 111 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Invitees:

Councillor Dimitri Batrouni – Cabinet Member for Organisational Transformation
Rhys Cornwall – Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate
Tracy McKim - Head of People, Policy and Transformation
Mark Bleazard - Digital Services Manager

The Head of Service introduced the report and noted that it was not a statutory report.

The Digital Services Manger gave a brief overview of the report and highlighted some key points.

Questions:

The Chair congratulated the Officers on including detail on the version and authors of the report but queried why this had only begun in April and asked whether there had been any previous versions.

·       The Digital Services Manager explained that the reports cover a period of a year and that they begin to write the report in April but noted that the team would be recording data throughout the year.

The Committee asked that the data be presented as percentages as well as figures to contextualise data.

The Committee queried why the Council had not been compliant with the PSN for a period of year and asked whether there were risks that had been associated with this.

·       The Digital Services Manager stated that the Council had not been formally compliant due to a late health check. The Digital Services Manager stated that the Council had been in the process of replacing the finance system which had created particular challenges but noted that although there had been a relatively small risk, there had been mitigation for this. The Digital Services Manager added that the check for the current year had already been put in place. 

·       The Digital Services Manger stated that an external provider carries out the health check and notes points of vulnerability. The Digital Services Manager added that when applying for compliance, it had not been accepted due to the listed vulnerabilities.

The Committee asked the Officers to state the vulnerabilities.

·       The Digital Services Manager listed some of the vulnerabilities and noted that the list appeared to be large due to the vulnerabilities being individually listed.

·       The Head of Service stated that there had been difficulties removing some of the vulnerabilities due to them having information systems on them.

·       The Digital Services Manager stated that although there were many on the list, they had all related to a singular system.

The Chair asked what shared systems had been in use with other Local Authorities and queried who had been determined to lead on these.

·       The Digital Services Manager stated that many of the Local Authorities would share a similar core infrastructure which had been driven by resilience as well as cost saving but noted that there would always be their own individual versions to avoid data concerns. The Digital Services Manager added that whilst in collaboration with SRS they had ensured that the Council had multiple different systems including the payroll system.

·       The Strategic Director noted that many authorities had moved to the Cloud but that they had their own system which would not be shared.

The Committee asked how regularly a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Climate Change Plan Annual Report 22-23 pdf icon PDF 129 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Invitees:

Councillor Yvonne Forsey – Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity
Paul Jones – Strategic Director of Environment and Sustainability
Silvia Gonzales-Lopez – The Head of Environment and Public Protection.
Ross Cudlipp – Service Manager for Climate Change.

The Committee agreed to hear this item first.

The Chair reminded Committee that this was the first year of reporting.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity introduced the report and the Head of Environment and Public Protection gave an overview of the report.

Questions:

The Committee queried the Business Travel and Employee Commuting figures and asked why this had increased and what the challenges of reducing this would be.

·       The Service Manager stated that there had been an increase in 22-23 compared to previous years due to the pandemic. The Service Manager highlighted that it would be better to compare data to 2019 as a baseline. The Service Manager informed Committee that they would find out why emissions were higher when homeworking was also increased and provide Committee with that information.

The Committee noted the changes in the way that the Welsh Government attribute organisational Carbon Emissions and asked whether this methodology had been applied retrospectively to the previous years as well as whether it was Officers’ opinion that overall emission levels had dropped.

·       The Service Manger informed the Committee that they had not been applied retrospectively but noted that this could be done and provided to Committee.

·       The Head of Service added that this is reported annually, and that the official data would not be able to be changed.

·       The Strategic Director explained that the methodology is continuously evolving and added that there are likely to be further changes.

·       The Chair stated that the Committee would receive the information but that it would not be regarded as official data.

·       The Strategic Director stated that they are confident that the emissions are going down.

 

The Committee noted that the People and Culture Strategy Action had a red rating and asked what challenges there had been.

·       The Head of People, Policy and Transformation noted that this had been on the plan from the year before and explained that since the staff conference, the development time scale had been set and that it was being drafted to be brought back to the Committee.

The Committee noted the action on using the Council’s influence to encourage the staff pension fund to invest ethically and stated that this would be a yes or no question and so queried how had it been marked as amber and what the challenges were associated with it. 

·       The Service Manager stated that this would be checked back on and a response provided to Committee.

·       The Strategic Director stated that as the Climate Change Plan was all encompassing and they may not be able to provide all answers at that moment.

·       The Committee noted that in their personal experience there had been delays in getting a response from the pension fund and that could be the reason why  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Conclusions of Committee Reports

Minutes:

The Committee asked that these be recorded at the end of each relevant agenda item.

7.

Scrutiny Adviser Reports pdf icon PDF 140 KB

a)      Actions Arising (Appendix 1)

b)      Forward Work Programme (Appendix 2)

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

a) Actions Arising (Appendix 1)

The Scrutiny Adviser reported the outstanding actions to the Committee.

The Scrutiny advisor reported back to the Committee that there were approximately 250 EV charging outlets in Newport.

The Scrutiny Advisor noted that the Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate would contact the university on behalf of the Committee.

      b) Forward Work Programme (Appendix 2)

The Scrutiny Advisor noted that there was one item on the agenda for the 8th September and that there were two items on the agenda for the meeting on the 9th October and added that the October meeting will begin at 2pm.

The Date of the next meeting was confirmed as the 8th September 2023.

 

8.

Live Event

Minutes: