Freedom of information response

Request 1 - Use of Scrutiny Call-in Mechanism

If your authority has an overview and scrutiny system, please answer the following:

For the past ten years, please confirm how many decisions taken by the council’s cabinet/executive were available for call-in. See attached table.

Please provide a table showing a breakdown of the following for each year since 2013. See attached table.

For each year, please state how many call-ins there were.

For each call-in please show which committee called them in, what the response was, the topic and provide a link to the relevant committee where the call was discussed.

Request 2 - Independence of Audit and/or Scrutiny

If your local authority doesn’t 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. We are responding for O & S committees.

If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny committee system, please confirm how many committees (excluding audit) are part of that system? Currently 6

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. Chairs and Vice Chairs are appointed at Annual Council in May each year following local elections. Political Groups nominate Members to these positions and voting takes place accordingly if contested. The rules on voting and conduct at meetings is contained in the council’s constitution: Thurrock Council Constitution | Constitution of the council | Thurrock Council

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.

Out of 6 Chairs of O & S 50% of positions are taken up by opposition members.

Request 3 - CIPFA on local guidance on local authority

We realise that the committee with audit related responsibilities are not always called ‘Audit Committee’. Please can you confirm what the title of this committee is within your local authority and answer the following questions in relation to that committee. Standards and Audit Committee

A) Internal Annual Review of Audit Committee

For each of the last five financial years please provide me with a copy of the audit committee’s annual review of its work. Please state the date the review was published and how it was made public at the time. There does not appear to be any documented record or evidence of a self-assessment review of the Committee for the last five years. Reference to the role and requirements of the Committee are contained in the Annual Governance Statement, which is produced and presented alongside the externally audited Financial Statements. The Council has not prepared an Annual Governance Statement since 2019/20, which was the last year when it produced externally audited Financial Statements.

Information relating to the Annual Governance Statements since 2017/18 is set out below.

Standard and Audit minutes are held Browse meetings - Standards and Audit Committee | Thurrock Council (moderngov.co.uk)

B) External Review of Audit Committee

Please confirm the most recent date that an external review of the audit committee was sought, who undertook that review, when and where it was published and provide a copy of the review. No record of external review evident