Skip to main content

Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Brentwood County High School, Shenfield Common, Seven Arches Road, Brentwood CM14 4JF

Contact: Claire Mayhew (01277 312 741) 

Items
No. Item

82.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Cllr Mrs Middlehurst and Cllr Kendall with Cllr Naylor substituting. 

83.

GDPR Update

Presentation.

Minutes:

A GDPR Update was presented to the committee from Mr Ruck.   

 

Cllr Tumbridge stated his concerns that he felt is was not acceptable that the policies were not presented or brought to this committee and that he was unhappy.

 

Cllr Tumbridge proposed that this committee recommend that an individual be identified from within our authority to take on the role of Data Protection Officer (DPO) and that all of these policies be brought to this committee as soon as possible. 

 

Mr Ruck confirmed he would send out the links to all the policies. Mr Ruck stated that the Council had previously operated successful shared roles in the three main statutory officer appointments (Chief Executive; S151 and Monitoring Officer) and also expressed his concerns for budgetary and skillset reasons on appointing an internal DPO.  Mr Ruck confirmed this would need to be brought to Policy, Projects and Resources Committee. 

 

A recommendation was MOVED by Cllr Tumbridge and SECONDED by Cllr Mynott

 

A vote was taken by a show of hands and it was RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY that:

 

An individual be identified as a DPO from within our authority (To be brought to the next Policy, Projects and Resources Committee). 

 

 

 

84.

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 pdf icon PDF 83 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) conducts periodic inspections of local authorities’ use of their powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). The purpose of these inspections was to examine the Council’s policies, procedures, operations and administration in relation to directed surveillance and covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) under RIPA.

 

The last inspection took place on 16th August 2017 and although it was noted  that there had been no directed surveillance or CHIS been requested since 21st July 2014 the inspector made one recommendation which required a number of parts of Corporate RIPA policy to be updated and amended. In addition, the Inspector, while not a subject of a Recommendation, pointed out that the issue of the dual role of Senior Responsible Officer (SRO)/ Authorising Officer (AO) being exercised by one officer should be avoided. The roles should be separated. The purpose of the SRO was to maintain general oversight of RIPA compliance, including the integrity of the authorisation process, while the AO’s role was solely to authorise requested activity. There were some minor changes as set out in 4.2 iii & iv . The report would enable members to generally review the RIPA activity since the last report and implement the recommendation as contained in attached Corporate RIPA policy document.

 

Cllr Tumbridge MOVED and Cllr Cloke SECONDED an additional recommendation:

 

3. That Appendix 4 (of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) Corporate Policy – June 2018 – Appendix A of the report) be brought back for review with the data protection compliance report at the next meeting. 

 

A vote was taken by a show of hands for the additional recommendation which was RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY. 

 

On the original recommendations, a motion was MOVED by Cllr Ms Rowlands and SECONDED by Cllr Cloke to approve the recommendations in the report.

 

A vote was taken by a show of hands and it was RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY:

 

1.    That the Committee approves the amendments to the Corporate RIPA policy set out in Appendix A in accordance with the recommendation of the Surveillance Inspector.

 

2.    That the Committee note the statistical information relating to the

use of RIPA since September 2017.

 

3.    That Appendix 4 (of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) Corporate Policy – June 2018 – Appendix A of the report) be brought back for review with the data protection compliance report at the next meeting. 

 

Reasons for Recommendation

To implement the recommendation made by the Surveillance Inspector and changes in law and to assist with Members’ oversight and decision making in relation to the attached RIPA Policy.

 

85.

Adoption of Revised Members Planning Code of Good Practice into the Constitution pdf icon PDF 113 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This item was deferred to a later committee meeting.

 

Cllr Rowlands and Cllr Tumbridge requested that if members had questions on this item to send them to the Chair or Vice Chair in advance so that officers had time to prepare a response.  

 

86.

Strategic and Operational Risk pdf icon PDF 98 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The report updated members of the Regulatory & Governance Committee on the status of the Council’s 2018/19 Strategic Risk Register and the progress being made across Services in delivering Operational Risk Registers.

 

The strategic risk register had been reviewed by senior officers and risk scored had been adjusted accordingly. 

 

Members suggested that all risks had associated target dates to monitor progress.

 

Cllr Tumbridge MOVED and Cllr Ms Rowlands SECONDED to approve the recommendation in the report subject to the following amendment:

 

1.    To agree the amendments to the Strategic Risk Register, as shown in Appendix A (of the report), and that the risk scores recorded for each risk accurately represents the current status of each risk with the exception of risks 5 and 11 which should be raised to “red”.

 

A vote was taken by a show of hands and it was RESOLVED:

 

1.    To agree the amendments to the Strategic Risk Register, as shown in Appendix A (of the report), and that the risk scores recorded for each risk accurately represents the current status of each risk with the exception of risks 5 and 11 which should be raised to “red”.

 

2.    To agree the risk exposure changes, as shown in Appendix B (of the report), to the Operational Risks.

 

Reasons for Recommendation

Risk Management continued to be embedded quarterly within the Senior Management Team reports, where Service Heads discussed the top-level risks for their service areas to ensure that the risks were updated to reflect the ongoing changes.

 

In addition, the Risk & Insurance Officer would continue to work with risk managers to maintain the good progress to date and further develop a consistent application of risk management considerations across all operations of the Council.

 

87.

Member's Training Programme pdf icon PDF 87 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The report before Member’s was to adopt the Member’s Training Programme for the new municipal year 2018/19.

 

Overall, Members welcomed the training programme. 

 

A motion was MOVED by Cllr Ms Rowlands  and SECONDED by Cllr Tumbridge to approve the recommendation in the report.

 

A vote was taken by a show of hands and it was RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY:

 

That the Committee adopts the Member’s Training Programme (Appendix A of the report) for 2018/2019.

 

Reasons for Recommendation

To provide a Member’s Training Programme in line with best practice.

 

88.

Urgent Business

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent busines and the meeting concluded at 20:05.