Agenda and minutes

Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Councillors Cobain and Nelson.

No declarations of interest were reported.

            The information contained in the reports associated with the following three items is restricted in accordance with Part 1 of Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

      Resolved – That the Committee agrees to exclude the members of the press and public from the meeting during discussion of the following three items as, due to the nature of the items, there would be a disclosure of exempt information as described in Section 42(4) and Section 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

            The Committee considered a report and associated presentation on the full Belfast 2024 overview, strategic case and rational.

            After discussion, the Committee agreed again to defer consideration of the matter until January, 2024 to enable those issues which had been raised both at this meeting and the meeting which had been held on 24th November to be addressed.

The Committee considered a report in relation to a funding requirement for The MAC, and agreed to defer again, until January, 2024, a request to provide The MAC with funding of £50k to assist it in addressing a significant in-year operating deficit.

            The Interim City Solicitor/Director of Legal and Civic Services advised the Committee that, under the terms of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation, etc) Act 2022, the Secretary of State had powers to exercise the appointment of certain appointment functions of Northern Ireland Ministers, including those relating to the NI Policing Board (NIPB).

            The current terms of appointment of three Board members would expire at the end of March 2024, and the Secretary of State had proposed that the Department of Justice commence a recruitment exercise in order to fill these three vacancies.

            She explained that Paragraph 8(2) of Schedule 1 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 required consultation with the First and Deputy First Minister, district councils and other such bodies as are considered appropriate before making any appointment of independent members to the Board. The Secretary of State had therefore written to Council Chief Executives advising of the proposal to appoint three independent Board members and setting out the criteria for the competition and was seeking any comments in relation to this process by 12.00 noon on 15th December.

            The Committee noted receipt of the correspondence from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in relation to the appointment of Independent Members to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and agreed that the Chief Executive submit any comments which any Member might wish to make regarding the required criteria by the response deadline.

The Committee agreed also that due to the consultation deadline that the matter be not subject toc call-in.