Issue - meetings

As an update on matters of interest, the Monitoring Officer noted some items that the Committee would be asked to consider in the future including:

·         Reports as part of a wider review of the Constitution - for example updating policies, the scheme of delegation for officer decisions and simplifying the Constitution in general to make it more user friendly.

·         The Officer Code of Conduct needed to be reviewed.

·         In the interests of efficiency, there needed to be a discussion about whether the Audit and Standards Committees could be merged. It was noted that Audit Committee had regular meetings whereas meetings of Standards Committee were more ad-hoc.

·         There were currently two Independent Persons, but it was recommended this be increased to three. Other elements around the role of the parish representatives on the Committee also needed to be discussed.

In response to comments raised during a brief discussion, the Monitoring Officer clarified there was some cross over in the Terms of Reference of both the Audit and Standards Committee regarding risk, governance and the Constitution. She also noted that combined committees had been working successfully elsewhere nationally.