Agenda item

To receive an update report on the work of Priority Group 1 who looked at the composition of the Committee and Hearing Sub-Committees.

The Monitoring Officer presented his report and sought recommendations from the Priority Group and Committee upon what amendments to the composition of the Committee and Sub-Committee they would like implemented and the following points were made:

·         Co-opted members did not need to be voting members because the decisions the Committee made were usually consensual.

·         Whilst there already was an ‘independent person’ on sub-committees, it was felt that Co-opted members ought to be included. Although some reservations were raised about the resultant size of the sub-committee.

·         The analysis of peer councils that was undertaken provided no evidence to support the inclusion of co-opted members on hearing sub-committees.

·         In order to increase the pool of voting members, from which the sub-committee could be selected, it would require a minimum of 5 additional Somerset Council members to maintain its current political balance.

·         Any changes to the Committee’s structure would, with the requirement for it to be agreed by Full Council, take time to be implemented

After a discussion it was agreed not to change the current composition of the Committee and Sub-Committees (action P2).

Noting that it would take some months for complaints to get to stage 3, and impact upon hearings, they felt that the situation should be monitored, to ensure that should any future changes be needed, they could be implemented in a timely manner (action P1).