Independence of Audit and/or Scrutiny Committee Chairs
Dear Vale of White Horse District Council,
The independence of scrutiny committees and audit committees has been identified in a number of Public Interest Reports as being an important factor in facilitating meaningful scrutiny and challenge within local authorities.
If your local authority doesn’t not have an overview and scrutiny system please answer the following in relation to the committee within your councils which has audit responsibilities.
If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny system please note that as audit committees are not formally treated as part of scrutiny it may be that they are treated differently in the council’s constitution and policies.
Please confirm whether you are responding to this request in relation to scrutiny committees and/or audit committees.
If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny committee system, please confirm how many committees (excluding audit) are part of that system?
Policy on Selection & Appointment of Committee Chairs: Please provide the council’s current policy on selection and appointment of scrutiny committee chairs and audit committee chairs. Please either copy and paste the section of council policy relating to the selection of scrutiny and audit committee chairs or provide a link and details of the section/sub-section within the document where we can locate this information.
Current Political Configuration of Committee Chairs/Conveners: Please provide a figure showing what percentage of current scrutiny and audit committee chairs (or conveners) are members of an opposition party to the main controlling party or controlling coalition.
Yours faithfully,
Megan Waugh
Research for Action
Dear Megan Waugh
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, which was received by Vale of White Horse District Council on 12 December 2023.
Please accept this email as confirmation that your request has been received and is being considered by the relevant department and that a response will be sent to you within 20 working days, subject to the information not being exempt and subject to any need for clarification.
The deadline for this will be 15 January 2024
The reference number for this request is Vale 23/833
I trust that this email is sufficient to assure you that your request is being dealt with. However, should you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI team at [Vale of White Horse District Council request email]
Kind regards
Information Governance Team
Legal & Democratic Services
Vale of White Horse District Council
www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk
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Vale of White Horse District Council
Dear Megan,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information requests to South Oxfordshire
District Council (Ref. 23/985) and Vale of White Horse District Council
(Ref. 23/833).
Under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 2000 Act) you
are entitled to be informed in writing whether the council holds the
information specified in your request and, if that is the case, to have
that information communicated to you unless any of the statutory
exemptions apply. I have considered your request and can confirm we do
hold some of the information asked and I do not believe any of the
statutory exemptions apply to your request. Please find below the
information you requested (where available).
Both South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils work
together to provide many services. This includes joint committees where
these are appropriate. The councils have the following audit and scrutiny
committees:
• Joint Audit and Governance Committee
• Joint Scrutiny Committee
• South Oxfordshire only - Scrutiny Committee
• Vale of White Horse only – Scrutiny Committee
In all four cases, these committees are independent of the councils’
Cabinets. No Cabinet member may be a member of these committees. The
membership of these committees must be taken from the non-Cabinet members
of the council. Likewise, the chairing roles of these committees is
undertaken by non-Cabinet members. In most cases, the chair is a member
of an opposition group; there is only one exception where one of the
co-chairs on the Joint Audit and Governance Committee is from the ruling
political group. This is due to the large majority held by the ruling
group at one of the councils. The membership of these committees can be
found on our websites: [1]www.southoxon.gov.uk and
[2]www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk.
Please treat this as the councils’ formal response under the 2000 Act. If
you are not satisfied with the decision I have made in response to your
request, you can make a request for an internal review by emailing
[3][email address] within 40 working days from the date we issued our
response. If you remain dissatisfied after following that procedure, you
have the right under Section 50 of the 2000 Act to complain to the
Information Commissioner if you feel the council has not dealt with your
request properly. You can contact the Commissioner at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (telephone number: 0303 123 1113).
You can also find further information at [4]www.ico.org.uk.
Regards,
Steve Culliford
Democratic Services Team Leader
Legal and Democratic
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils
[5][email address]
References
Visible links
1. http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/
2. http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
5. mailto:[email address]
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