Agenda item

Consider report by Director, Finance & Corporate Governance.  (Copy attached.)

There had been circulated copies of a report by the Director Finance and Corporate Governance proposing that public Council committee meetings which were livestreamed were recorded and such a recording kept for 180 days before being deleted.  The report explained that at its meeting on 30 July 2020, in response to continuing public health concerns around the pandemic, Scottish Borders Council agreed that online meetings would be available to view via a livestream.  From 10 August 2020, the public parts of Council and all committee meetings had been livestreamed at the time of the meeting.  However, no recording of the meeting was made and was not therefore available to view after the meeting had finished.  In order to promote democratic engagement with the Borders community, officers had been looking at the means to be able to record meetings and make these available to the public after the event, in compliance with GDPR Regulations.  Confidential business was not livestreamed and it was not intended that this part of a meeting would be recorded.  It was now proposed that when public business was being considered at any Council committee meeting which was livestreamed, these meetings would be recorded and made available to the public after the meeting through the link to the event livestream.  This link would remain live for 180 days after the meeting and would then be automatically deleted.  A notice to this effect would be placed on the agenda for the meeting.  At the start of the meeting the Chair would announce whether the meeting was being livestreamed and recorded.  The Chair would also have the discretion to terminate or suspend livestreaming and recording, either to receive advice from officers, or if in their opinion allowing livestreaming or recording to continue would prejudice the proceedings of the meeting.  Unfortunately, the technology to be able to livestream and record physical/blended committee meetings would only be available at Council Headquarters for the foreseeable future, once work to install the technology was completed.  Therefore any meetings which took place elsewhere would not be livestreamed or recorded unless they took place wholly online.  Members fully supported the proposal as it promoted democratic engagement and increased transparency.

DECISION

AGREED:-

(a)       to approve the recording of livestreamed Council committee meetings which would be available to view for 180 days after the meeting and thereafter be deleted;

(b)       that a notice would be placed on agendas advising when a meeting was being recorded and at the start of such a meeting the Chair would announce whether the meeting was being livestreamed and recorded and by participating in the meeting, attendees gave consent for this;

(c)       that the Chair would have the discretion to terminate or suspend livestreaming or recording, either to receive advice from officers, or if in their opinion allowing livestreaming or recording to continue would prejudice the proceedings of the meeting and this was added to Standing Order No. 16 (duties of Chairman); and

(d)       to note that under the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, data collected during the livestream would be retained in accordance with the Council’s published policy, including, but not limited to, for the purpose of keeping historical records and making those records available for 180 days after the meeting via the Council’s website.