Agenda and minutes

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting on 10 February 2020 (circulated separately).

The Minutes of the meeting held on 10 February were agreed as a correct record and noted by the Chairman.

The hard copies of minutes will be signed by the Chairman as soon as it is reasonably practicable or alternatively, an electronic signature will be arranged.

To note declarations of Members’ disclosable pecuniary interests, non-disclosable pecuniary interests and non-pecuniary interests in respect of items on this Agenda.

Councillor P.Zukowskyj declared non-pecuniary interests in items on the Agenda as appropriate as a Member of Hertfordshire County Council.

To agree the Standards Committee Work Programme for the municipal year 2020-21.

The draft work programme was set out in the paper for members to note.

It was noted that the dates on the draft programme did not coincide with the dates on the committee calendar due to an administration error. However the items to be discussed at the meetings would be going to the relevant meetings throughout the year. The draft work programme shows no known business at this time for the third meeting of the municipal year. This meeting will be cancelled if no business arises.

An amended version of the work plan with the committee dates as agreed by full council will be circulated to members of the Standards Committee as follows:

RESOLVED

That the work programme for 2020/21 be approved.

Report of the Chief Executive which presents the Draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for the financial year 2019/20 (attached at Appendix A), which has been compiled in accordance with best practice set out in the CIPFA/SOLACE Guidance Framework “Delivering Good Governance in Local Government”.

Report of the Chief Executive on the draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for the financial year 2018/19. The draft AGS, as attached at Appendix A had been compiled in accordance with best practice set out in the CIPFA/SOLACE Guidance Framework ‘Delivering Good Governance in Local Government’.

The officer explained that, as in previous years, the AGS had been prepared by the council’s Governance Group, chaired by Chief Executive. There were no significant findings to bring to members’ attention however they were asked to note the action plan in section 4.

An amendment was agreed to remove paragraphs 1.1 and 1.2 from the “Scope of Responsibility” section and to have this information within a “Background” section of the document.

Members enquired whether this is shared with the external auditors and whether a statement has been issued from CIPFA around how to reflect the impact of Covid-19 in the Annual Governance Statement. The AGS is submitted to the council’s Audit Committee

RESOLVED

1)     That the Standards committee considers and approves the Draft Annual Governance Statement and agrees for it to be submitted to Audit Committee on 25 June 2020.

2)     Authorises the Chief Executive, in conjunction with the Leader of the Council, to make any subsequent amendments to the Draft Annual Governance Statement necessitated by the comments made by the Audit Committee.

3)     Recommends its certification by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive.