Agenda and minutes

            The Lead Officer – Scrutiny – opened the meeting and invited nominations for Chair of the Combined Authority Scrutiny Panel for 2016/17.

            RESOLVED: That Councillor Kevan Wainwright be appointed Chair of the Combined Authority Scrutiny Panel for 2016/17.          

            The Chair invited nominations for Vice Chair of the Combined Authority Scrutiny Panel for 2016/17.

            RESOLVED: That Councillor Mike Sullivan be appointed Vice Chair of the Combined Authority Scrutiny Panel for 2016/17.

          The minutes of the meeting held on 20 April 2016, having been circulated, were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

            The Chair invited nominations for two Members and one substitute Member to sit on the Combined Authority’s Audit Committee.

            RESOLVED: That Councillor Sullivan and Councillor Jones be appointed as Members and that Councillor Crone be appointed as the Substitute Member, on the Combined Authority’s Audit Committee for 2016/17.

            The Panel considered a report of the Lead Officer – Scrutiny, which summarised the review of the functions and governance arrangements of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA). It was noted that the current Governance arrangements would be unchanged and would continue to operate under the original order that set up the LCRCA until May 2017.

            In order for additional functions are to be conferred on the Combined Authority and Directly Elected Mayor, the law required that the City Region undertake a formal governance review to demonstrate that its scheme met the statutory requirements of the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016. The Combined Authority, at its meeting on 17^th June 2016, agreed that the Governance Review and Scheme would be subject to a public consultation exercise. The report summarised details of the proposed consultation process in this respect. Members of the Panel were advised that comments could be forwarded to Lisa Smith (Liverpool City Council) or David Parr (Chief Executive of Halton Borough Council) and fed into the consultation process.

            The outcome of the consultation process would be formally reported to the Combined Authority on 19^th August 2016 and submitted, together with the Governance Review and Scheme, to the Secretary of State for consideration by 28^th August 2016. If the Secretary of State was satisfied with the outcome of the Governance Review and the consultation, then a Liverpool City Region Order would be drafted, which must be formally approved by individual local authorities and the Combined Authority during October 2016. The Panel would be kept updated on developments in this area.

            Arising from the discussion a Member asked if a Directly Elected Assembly had been considered as part of the Governance model. In response the Panel was advised that the Governance model was set by Government and a Directly Elected Assembly was not allowed for within the statutory framework.

            RESOLVED: That the Governance Review and Scheme be noted.

            The Panel considered a report of the Lead Officer – Scrutiny, which sought Members’ views on the Panel’s Work Programme for 2016/17.

            The Work Programme was considered at the Development Day, which took place on 28 June 2016. It was reported that the following topics were discussed: European Funding; Transport; future role of Scrutiny Panel’s, Employment Learning and Skills. In addition, it was reported that the Combined Authority had referred an ethical standards report to the Panel and then the Audit Team at Merseytravel would bring a report to a future Panel meeting.

            The Panel discussed the Housing and Planning Review and whilst accepting that a formal scrutiny review was not appropriate at the stage asked that an update report be brought to a future meeting of the Panel.

            It was also agreed that the next scrutiny topic work to be undertaken by the Panel would be on Employment Learning and Skills and would commence shortly.

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

            The Panel received a report of the Lead Officer – Scrutiny, which provided Members with a note of some significant decisions made by the Combined Authority since April 2016.

            The report provided a digest of decisions made by the Combined Authority meetings on 15 April 2016 and 17 June 2016.

            Mayor Anderson, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (CA) attended the meeting to discuss with the Panel the progress of the CA as it moved forward towards the establishment of a Directly Elected Mayor in May 2017. As part of the ongoing Governance Review there was an opportunity to develop scrutiny further before May 2017 and to involve other agencies in the process where possible. It was recognised that the Scrutiny Panel would have a crucial role to play within the new arrangements and it was important that the Panel evolved and developed ideas as the CA moved towards its new governance arrangements.

            It was noted that the CA has to make a number of decisions extremely quickly as it was responding to an agenda set by Central Government and within tight timescales. However, it was anticipated that as the new CA staffing structures were established reports would be made available earlier for scrutiny purposes. It was also hoped that the Chair or Portfolio Member of the CA would also attend future Panel meetings to discuss topics for scrutiny.  A further report on the governance arrangements would be brought to the October Panel meeting.

            Arising from the discussion with the Chair of the CA the following issues were raised:

·         The future role of the NHS within the CA with regard to NHS budgets;

·         The location on social media of the consultation process in respect of future governance; and

·         The future role of the Scrutiny Panel in respect of decisions made by the CA.

Mayor Anderson was thanked for his attendance.

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.