Agenda item

Nick Hughes, Committee Services Manager and Deputy Monitoring Officer introduced the report and made the following points:

·  The Leader of Council would like to continue to share the Leader’s report. The constitution did not say that his report was confidential, however, there was an understanding that the report should not be shared outside the group leaders circle until after the council meeting at which that report would be discussed;

·  As a result of a recent incident where the Leader’s report was shared with the press, the Leader had asked Democratic Services to present provisions to the CRC to amend the constitution to prevent any more leaks of the Leader’s report to Council;

·  The committee was being asked to consider the various options as detailed in the committee report and make recommendations to Full Council.

The committee went into debate and made the following points:

·  It was important that the Leader’s report was shared with group leaders in advance of a Council meeting;

·  This approach would make discussions during Council meetings more informed;

·  Moving forward a reminder about confidentiality of the Leader’s report should be go out each time the Leader’s report was shared with them;

·  One member said that given that the constitution allowed for sanctions for breach of confidentiality, Option 2 was the best way forward;

·  It would be wrong not to share the report with group leaders ahead of a Council meeting;

·  Another member said that the sanctions had not acted as a deterrent as there was at least one incident where the report was leaked to the press.

Councillor Will Scobie proposed and Councillor Edwards seconded the following recommendation, that:

The paragraph could be amended to say; “The Leader of the Council has the discretion to make available in writing the content of their oral report to opposition group leaders no later than the Saturday before the meeting.”

This would allow the Leader more choice as to whether he shared the report in advance subject to its content.

·  Another member said that the Leader’s report usually contained a lot of information that needed time to study before any discussion at a Council meeting. Therefore sharing in advance of a meeting would provide for time to study the report;

·  One member said that not getting the report in advance would make it difficult for the group leaders to make substantial responses to the contents of the report. They further said that that it was worth noting that there had only been one leaking incident;

·  Another member asked whether group leaders could share with their members the report prior to the meeting;

·  One member said that dealing with issues as they emerged during a meeting was part of a political environment that group leaders should be used to. This meant that group leaders should be able to respond to the Leader’s report without the need for advance access to the report. They also said that group leaders did not provide advance access of their responses to the Leader of Council ahead of a meeting;

·  Another member said that action should be taken against the individual who leaked the report instead of changing the current arrangements;

·  One member said that sharing of the Leader’s report relied on trust, which had been broken because of the breach. This breach required a review of these arrangements;

·  Another member asked for a compromise in order to ensure that debates of the Leader’s report remained balanced.

Ingrid Brown, head of Legal and Democracy & Monitoring Officer responded to member comments and questions as follows:

·  If the constitution was amended, any unauthorised sharing of the confidential report would be dealt with as a breach of the constitution;

·  Under the current arrangements, it would be inappropriate for group leaders to share the Leader’s report with their respective group members.

Councillor Will Scobie proposed, Councillor Pugh seconded and the committee recommended to Full Council that the following paragraph be added to the constitutional provisions for sharing the Leader’s Report:

“The Leader of the Council will make available in writing a summary of the content of their report to opposition group leaders no later than the Saturday before the meeting. The content of the report should remain confidential and not be shared until after the report is presented at the meeting.”