Agenda item

To receive and consider a report from the Director of Law and Governance outlining details of a call-in received on the Portfolio Decision taken on Meridian Water- National Grid Overage (Report No: 177).

The decision that has been called in was a Portfolio Decision taken on 25 January 2019 and included on the Publication of Decision List No: 45/18-19 (List Ref:7/45/18-19) issued on 25 January 2019.

It is proposed that consideration of the call-in be structured as follows:

· Brief outline of the reasons for the call-in by representative (s) of the members who   have called in the decision

· Response to the reasons provided for the Call-in by a Cabinet Member responsible for taking the decision

· Debate by Overview and Scrutiny Committee and agreement of action to be taken

Please also see the Part 2 agenda

The Chair opened this item by making a statement about the call-in process and his observations regarding items coming forward as a lot of the recent
call-ins seemed to focus on what ‘is not in the report’ rather than what is included. The call-in process should not be used for simply seeking information as this could be gained by other means, e.g. talking to officers.

Call-Ins have a very specific function and OSC is not necessarily a surrogate for information exchange. Call-Ins are welcomed as they are very much part of the democratic process. However, the reasons cited for the call-in should be based on information that is deemed weak in the report and not what is thought to be absent. It can potentially make a call-in weaker if using them to procure additional information.

The Committee received a report from the Director of Law and Governance outlining details of a call-in received on the Portfolio decision taken on Meridian Water – National Grid Overage (taken on 25/01/19)

NOTED that this report was considered in conjunction with the information in the part 2 agenda.

All the discussion on this item took part in the part 2 section of the meeting.