Independence of Audit and/or Scrutiny Committee Chairs
Dear Bedford Borough 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
Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.
In considering the request, it may be subject to exemptions that the
Council rely on to refuse the information. Some exemptions are absolute
and some only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs that of disclosing the information.
[1]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
Please note that should you be requesting information under the
Environmental Information Regulations although we provide free access to a
wide range of information through our website, access to any public
registers which we hold and for inspecting information at our offices, we
are allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for providing certain
information.
If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice. This will detail the
tasks involved in responding to the request, and associated costs. Further
information is available on the EIR page of Bedford Borough Council’s
website at the following link:
[2]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to
this matter should be emailed to [3][email address]
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References
Visible links
1. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
2. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
3. mailto:[email address]
Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure
Dear Megan Waugh
Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No. 21153
Further to your request for information dated 12^th December, I can
confirm that the information you requested is held under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA). However, the Council, for the reasons that
follow, declines to disclose the information requested.
The information is exempt under Section 21 of the FOIA because the
information is accessible to you, as it is already in the public domain.
This information is all available on the Council website in the Your
Council section that includes a section on Overview & Scrutiny Committees
[1]Overview and scrutiny | Bedford Borough Council and the procedure rules
for O & S are contained in the Council's Constitution Part 7 [2]Library
folder - Constitution - Bedford Borough Council
The appointment of Chairs for each O & S Committee is made at the first
Committee meeting of the new Municipal Year (following Annual Council
meeitng in May).
If for whatever reason you are unhappy with our response to your request
you are entitled to pursue any dissatisfaction through the Council's
Internal Review Procedure. Pursuant to Section 17 (7) of the Act the
procedure provided by the Council for dealing with complaints about the
determination of this request for information is the Council’s FOI
Complaints Procedure, a copy of which can be obtained on request or is set
out at:
[3]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
Yours sincerely
Maria Scapini
Customer Feedback Officer
Customer Services & Customer Feedback
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Website: www.bedford.gov.uk
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