Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Councillors in accordance with the code of conduct.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 17 February 2016 and 19 February 2016.

The Board agreed that the minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2016 are confirmed as a correct record.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be asked to consider and approve the work programmes for each panel and receive a progress update from each Chair.

The Chair advised that the Board’s work programme for 2015/16 had been successfully completed.

The Board, will receive notification of the decisions taken under delegated authority with the Board’s Lead Officer in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair.

Since the last meeting of the Board, no decisions had been taken under delegated authority.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will monitor the progress of its previous decisions.

With regard to minute 100 (the Board meeting held on 19 February 2016), the Board agreed to amend the letter to the Right Honourable Gregg Clark MP to include -

Councillor Murphy enquired whether a response had been received from Mr J Mercer MP, regarding the letter that had been sent to him by the Chair of the Board on 22 February 2016.  The Lead Officer advised that, as yet, no response had been received.

To receive new items from the Forward Plan of Key Decisions and Private Business with a view to identifying items for scrutiny.

On this occasion, no new items had been added to the forward plan of key decisions and private business.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will consider the transformation programme’s costs, benefits and achievement report.

Councillor Taylor (Cabinet Member for Transformation and Customer Services) and Les Allen (Head of Transformation Programme) provided the costs, benefits and achievements of the Transformation Programme which highlighted the following key points -

The main areas of questioning from Members related to the following –

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will consider the progress of the POD merge.

Councillor Taylor (Cabinet Member for Transformation and Customer Services) and Rob Hume (Senior Project Manager) gave a presentation on the progress of the merge of the People and Organisation Development Programme which included the following key points –

The main area of questioning from Members relating to whether the reduction in the number of staff related to people directly employed by the Council or consultants.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will consider the report on strengthening the overview and scrutiny function – co-operative review.

Ross Jago (Lead Officer) presented the review of scrutiny report which proposed a number of recommendations to strengthen the scrutiny function along with options for structural changes to the Scrutiny Board and its panels to improve effectiveness. The following key points were highlighted –

The Board agreed –

(Councillor Kate Taylor abstained from the vote).

The Board will have a wash up session on the EU Referendum review.

At Full Council on 23 November 2015 a motion was debated and agreed which required the Co-operative Scrutiny Board to undertake a review into the EU Referendum. Following this directive the Co-operative Scrutiny Board held a session which scrutinised the advantages and disadvantages of European Union membership on the City of Plymouth. 

The Lead Officer, Ross Jago, presented the EU Referendum Review report for the Board’s consideration.

The Board agreed to recommend the following to Full Council that -

Please note: that the EU Referendum Meeting held on 2 March 2016 can be viewed at - http://council.webcast.vualto.com/plymouth-city-council/home?EventId=14231

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be advised of any executive decisions that have been called in.

There were no call-ins to consider.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be advised of executive decisions that have been deemed urgent with the agreement of the Chair (if any).

There were no urgent executive decisions to consider.

To receive and consider recommendations from Panels, Cabinet and Council.

There were no recommendations to consider.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be asked to consider co-operative review(s) (if any).

There were no co-operative reviews to consider.

Please note this meeting can be viewed at http://council.webcast.vualto.com/plymouth-city-council/home/?EventId=14231