Agenda and minutes

(a) Consider Minute of meeting held on 20 April 2023. (Copy attached.)

(b) Consider Action Tracker. (Copy attached.)

1.1       Copies of the Minute of Meeting held on 20 April 2023 had been circulated.  

DECISION

APPROVED the Minute for signature by the Chair.

1.2       Copies of the Action Tracker for Scrutiny decisions had been circulated.  The Clerk to the Council explained that with reference to paragraph 2.4 of the Minute of 12 January 2023, while no generic emails had yet gone out to Community Councils regarding waste and recycling communications, officers would copy in Members to these emails so they could check they had been received and disseminated wider within communities.  With reference to paragraph 2.4 of the Minute of 13 January 2022, as the use of school facilities was now part of the new Scrutiny Review programme, the discussion on this would be taken forward through the Place Making agenda and also as part of that future review.

1.3       With reference to paragraph 1(a) of the Minute of 29 December 2021, the Director Resilient Communities explained that a report was due to be presented to the Executive Committee on 13 June 2023, seeking approval for a review of the Local Festival Grant Scheme, to be undertake prior to the commencement of the 2024/25 budget planning process.  The review would be carried out through a short-life Member/Officer Working Group which would engage with relevant stakeholders and report back to the Executive Committee.

DECISION

NOTED the update to the Action Tracker and that these items be removed from the Action Tracker. 

A verbal update from Jenni Craig, Director Resilient Communities on the Rural Proofing Policy.

With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 9 December 2021, the Director Resilient Communities explained that having had an initial look at the Rural Proofing Policy, the thinking had now changed in terms of how to approach this.   This Policy was initially developed to ensure people living and working in rural areas were taken into account in any new policies.  This was in 2008 and a checklist was developed at that time to make an assessment.  Things had moved on some way in terms of impact assessments since then, and the Scrutiny & Petitions Committee had suggested that rather than staying as a separate item, it should be part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Integrated Impact Assessment checklists and strengthen those to ensure rurality was fully incorporated.  It had now been recognised that the UN Sustainable Development Goals were a global standard so we could not change or add to that process.  Instead, staff were being encouraged to consider rural aspects and ensure these were taken into account when looking at the checklist for the UN Sustainable Goals to ensure that any inequalities as a result of living in a rural area were recognised.  Rather than changing the checklist, the guidance in completing the checklist would be amended.  In terms of Integrated Impact Assessments (IIAs), rural proofing was fundamental to this and officers were now suggesting that rural proofing be built into IIAs going forward which would allow the separate Rural Proofing checklist to be removed.  Work was underway to amend the IIA and guidance.  The Director suggested that this should be completed and then in 6 months an evaluation be carried out to ensure it was working properly and a report brought to Scrutiny & Petitions Committee at that time. 

DECISION

NOTED that the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) would be amended to incorporate rural proofing and a report would be brought to Scrutiny & Petitions Committee in 6 months to ensure the new IIA was working as planned.

Consider the Scrutiny Review Work Programme report.  (Copy attached.)

3.1       With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 20 April 2023, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Clerk to the Council, which provided further details of those subjects submitted for consideration for review by the Scrutiny and Petitions Committee and sought approval for their inclusion in the Scrutiny Review Work Programme to be recommended to Council.  The report explained that there were 9 topics being take forward for inclusion in the Scrutiny Review Programme as follows:-

1.  Public Toilet Provision in the Scottish Borders

2.  Employability Service Public Engagement

3.  Private Sector Housing Grants and Assessment Process

4.  Industrial Estates in the Scottish Borders

5.  Covid Recovery Funds

6.  Community Access to Schools out-with school hours

7.  Shared Lives

8.  E-Fleet

                          9.  See Hear Grant Funding   

3.2       In providing further information for each review, consideration had been given to the potential scale of each review, the resources required to take it forward, the timing of such a review and the method of taking the review forward i.e. by way of an information hearing or focussed hearing.  Working Groups were not being considered at this time due to the current pressure on staff.  The breadth of some reviews would require to be taken into consideration, as would the number of reviews being undertaken at any given time, to ensure that Members and Officers did not become over-burdened and resources were not stretched too thinly.  Depending on the subject matter, Officers from various Services of the Council could provide support to Scrutiny & Petitions hearings.

3.3       With regard to the review of Public Toilet Provision, Members were keen to be updated on progress with this work before the suggested date of Winter 2024, due to the public interest in the matter.  It was suggested that interim update reports on progress with the programme for public toilet provision would be brought to the Committee, with the first such report to be in December 2023 and this was unanimously agreed.

DECISION

(a)     AGREED the Scrutiny Review Work Programme as detailed in the Appendix to this Minute.

(b)     NOTED that the Review Work Programme may be added to at a later date, subject to approval by Scottish Borders Council.

*          (c)     AGREED to RECOMMEND to Scottish Borders Council that the Scrutiny Review Work Programme as detailed in the Appendix be approved.

The future meetings of the Scrutiny & Petitions Committee were scheduled as follows:

·         17 August 2023

·         19 October 2023

·         7 December 2023

·         21 March 2024

·         23 May 2024

The Committee noted the dates for future meetings detailed on the agenda.