Inquiry into overview and scrutiny in local government launched by CLG Committee

• ·         Committee to investigate whether overview and scrutiny arrangements are working effectively
• ·         Shortcomings have been highlighted after failings in Rotherham, Mid Staffs NHS and Tower Hamlets
• ·         Arrangements were introduced by 2000 Act as counterweight to increased decision-making powers
• ·         Committee Chair Clive Betts MP says ‘inquiry is long overdue . . . councils have more power than ever’

The Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee is today launching an inquiry into overview and scrutiny in local government. The Committee will consider whether overview and scrutiny arrangements in England are working effectively and whether local communities are able to contribute to and monitor the work of their councils.

Overview and scrutiny arrangements were introduced by the Local Government Act in 2000 as a counterweight to increasing decision-making powers of Leaders and Cabinets or directly elected mayors. Shortcomings have been exposed, however, following a number of high profile cases, including child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, poor care and high mortality rates at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and governance failings in Tower Hamlets.

Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee, said: “This inquiry is long overdue. Local authority executives have more powers than ever before but there has not been any review about how effectively the current overview and scrutiny arrangements are working since they were introduced in 2000. Local authorities have a considerable degree of discretion when it comes to overview and scrutiny. We will examine these arrangements and consider what changes may be needed to ensure decision-makers in councils and local services are better held to account.”

The Committee is inviting written evidence, to be submitted via its website, on the following:

• ·         Whether scrutiny committees in local authorities in England are effective in holding decision-makers to account
• ·         The extent to which scrutiny committees operate with political impartiality and independence from executives
• ·         Whether scrutiny officers are independent of and separate from those being scrutinised
• ·         How chairs and members are selected
• ·         Whether powers to summon witnesses are adequate
• ·         The potential for local authority scrutiny to act as a voice for local service users
• ·         How topics for scrutiny are selected
• ·         The support given to the scrutiny function by political leaders and senior officers, including the resources allocated (for example whether there is a designated officer team)
• ·         What use is made of specialist external advisers
• ·         The effectiveness and importance of local authority scrutiny of external organisations
• ·         The role of scrutiny in devolution deals and the scrutiny models used in combined authorities
• ·         Examples where scrutiny has worked well and not so well

NOTES:

Every local authority must have at least one overview and scrutiny committee. These are tasked with scrutinising the work of council executives, making recommendations to the executive and considering other matters which affect the residents of a local authority area, such as healthcare and policing.

Prior to the 2000 Act, local authorities’ executive decisions were made by cross-party committees but the creation of decision-making executives was seen by critics as giving too much power to council Leaders. The Localism Act 2011 gives authorities the option to revert back to the cross-party committee system but few have done so.