Agenda item

            The Democratic Services Manager reminded the Committee that, at the Council meeting on 1st November, a number of Members had made mention of the fact that the minutes of several Working Groups were only mentioned in passing in the minutes of the controlling Standing Committee.  In particular, attention had been drawn to the adoption of the minutes of the meetings of the Budget and Transformation Panel and the Historic Centenaries Working Group by the Committee on 21st October.  The Chief Executive had undertaken to have a report presented to the Committee setting out options with regard to how the minutes of Working Groups should be dealt with both at the Standing Committees and, subsequently, within the Council minute book.

            The Democratic Services Manager explained that all Members of Council had access to the Modern.gov system without restriction and could already view both the agenda papers and minutes of all Committees and Working Groups whether or not they were a Member of that Committee or Working Group.  All Committee reports and associated appendices were therefore already available to all Members.

            However, at present, only the minutes of the meetings of the Council’s Standing Committees were included in the minute book presented at the monthly Council meeting.  The reason for that was that it was only those Committees which could make decisions subject to Council ratification.  Working Groups had no standing under the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972.  The decision to establish a number of Working Groups in 2008 had been taken in order to allow the preliminary work on a range of issues to be discussed by All-Party Groups and for those Working Groups to make recommendations to the controlling Standing Committees.  If the minutes of a Working Group were adopted by the controlling Standing Committee then, normally, that was all that the minute would show.  If, however, the recommendations of a Working Group were amended or rejected by the controlling Committee it was recorded separately within the minute of the controlling Committee. 

            The Democratic Services Manager pointed out that if the minutes of a controlling Committee only recorded that the minutes of a Working Group which were submitted to it were “adopted” then it was accepted that this did not reflect fully the discussions undertaken and recommendations agreed at the Working Group meeting.  Although the full minutes of those Working Groups were available to all Members through the Modern.gov system, they were not readily available to Members at the monthly meeting. 

            One way in which that could be resolved would be to include a more comprehensive record within the Standing Committee minute of the recommendations of the Working Groups which reported to it.  For example, when the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee was considering the minutes of the Good Relations Partnership, the minute of the meeting would record the important individual decisions which were taken by the adoption of the Partnership’s minute.  That would highlight the individual issues which the Working Groups considered and allow the full Council meeting to discuss them in more detail.

            The Committee agreed that, in future, the important individual recommendations which were made by Working Groups be included within the minutes of the appropriate Standing Committee.