Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3 - 2nd Floor West Wing, Guildhall

Contact: Emma Cunnington  Email: emma.cunnington@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Simon Duckworth, Christopher Hayward, Deputy Jamie Ingham Clark, Deputy Edward Lord and Sir Michael Snyder.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

2.

MEMBERS' DECLARATIONS UNDER THE CODE OF CONDUCT IN RESPECT OF ITEMS ON THE AGENDA

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 92 KB

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 28 June 2018.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 3.

Minutes:

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 28 June 2018 be approved as a correct record.

 

Matters arising

·         The Remembrancer updated the Sub-Committee on the research he had done into the position of EU citizens living in the UK who might wish to stand for election as councillors after the UK had left the EU. It was agreed that this issue should be raised with the London Government Association and London Councils, who did not have a position on this, and if the City Corporation needed to take a position, it should be dealt at the Policy & Resources Committee.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Brexit White Paper

The Director of Economic Development, the Director of Communications and the Remembrancer to be heard.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 4.

Minutes:

The Policy Chairman updated Members on the City Corporation’s position following the publication of the Brexit White Paper, and the related activity that had been undertaken thereafter, including an invitation to the Policy Chairman from the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU to attend a Business Summit at Chevening House and an opportunity to give evidence to the Select Committee for Exiting the European Union. Members noted the three main asks of the City Corporation to Government over the next few months:

 

1.    With only a few months to go before we leave the EU, it is urgent that the government redoubles its effort to finalise the Withdrawal Agreement and ensure that a transition/implementation is in place to give certainty to businesses;

2.    Of equal urgency is the need to find a common way forward to address cliff edge issues, including contract continuity and ensure two-way data flows;

3.    To put in place, where possible, unilateral measures to ensure business can continue irrespective of the agreement with the EU.

 

The Policy Chairman also outlined to Members that the City Corporation’s interests may start to differ from the sector.

 

The Assistant Director of Economic Development, the Director of Communications and the Remembrancer also made the following points:

·         Mutual Recognition Regulation (MRR) was an ask that the financial sector could coalesce behind, and an ask for equivalence or enhanced equivalence would now be more difficult, even within sub sectors;

·         The City Corporation would continue to work closely with EU governments;

·         The Policy Chairman’s statement to Court stressed the pragmatism element of the City Corporation’s messaging on Brexit;

·         During the Select Committee hearing, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) were particularly exercised by the EEA option and the impact of rule-taking on their industry.

 

A Member requested a copy of the

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

EDO Monthly Update pdf icon PDF 52 KB

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 5.

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Economic Development, which highlighted key activity undertaken by the Economic Development Office in June 2018.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Corporate Affairs Update pdf icon PDF 56 KB

Report of the Director of Communications.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 6.

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Communications, which updated Members on key elements of the Corporate Affairs team’s activity in support of the City Corporation’s external political engagement and corporate communications.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Remembrancer's Monthly Update pdf icon PDF 69 KB

Report of the Remembrancer.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 7.

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Remembrancer updating Members on the main elements of the Parliamentary Team’s activity in support of the City Corporation’s political and parliamentary engagement.

 

A Member requested that future reports have a section which outlines Private Members Bills on the horizon that the Remembrancer plans to influence.

 

The Remembrancer also advised that he would shortly be seeing a Private Members Bill on the Air Quality Act.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Filming in the City

The Director of Communications to be heard.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 8.

Minutes:

The Director of Communications updated Members on the growing issue of large-scale filming in the City, particularly taking place over August. In particular, the filming of Men in Black required the closure of Ludgate Hill and as part of the filming for Fast and Furious, a helicopter would land outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

 

The Director advised that much bigger productions were coming to the City on a much bigger scale and suggested that he work up a strategy to implement by the end of the year.

 

Members were supportive of this and raised the following points:

·         The income from films in the City was invaluable and should be encouraged;

·         Tours and events can be arranged to embed this;

·         The City Corporation should push to be linked to the success of the film in some way;

·         For the last 15 years, two members of staff have been overseeing filming requests on an ad hoc basis;

·         Members on the Court with expertise in film-making could be consulted as part of the strategy;

·         The Markets Committee have a film policy and it should be co-ordinated so that there is one approach.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The Director of Communications create a strategy on filming in the City to be submitted to the Sub Committee before the end of the year.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Update pdf icon PDF 60 KB

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 9.

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Economic Development concerning the progress on the Strategic Engagement and Events Management (SEEM) applications for City Dynamics.

 

One Member questioned the wording in the report, which set out that the development had included GDPR compliance “by default”, and it was agreed the wording should be changed to “by design”.

 

Following a question, Members also heard how this system would produce reports for Committees. In addition, Members wanted to have further clarity on the budget for this programme as IT Sub Committee had been told that the IT associated budget was not on budget.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The progress of the City Dynamics project be noted.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Chairman of Policy and Resources' Visit to Switzerland pdf icon PDF 77 KB

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report on the Chairman of Policy and Resources’ visit ti Switzerland from 26-27 June.

 

The Policy Chairman reminded Members of the “One Team” approach between the Policy Chairman and the Lord Mayor and reported that there was now more coordination than before but more work to do on passing on the baton.

 

Following questions, Members heard how this was an introductory visit and that the meetings with the World Trade Organisation focused on e-commerce. It was reported that Switzerland is a critical market for the EU and the UK.

 

The Assistant Director reported that a strategy for the City Corporation’s engagement with Switzerland would be reported to a meeting of the Sub Committee in the Autumn.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Chairman of Policy and Resources' Visit to China pdf icon PDF 105 KB

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 11.

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Economic Development concerning the Policy Chairman’s visit to Beijing and Shanghai from 13 – 15 June.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

12.

Chairman of Policy and Resources' Visit to Saudi Arabia pdf icon PDF 61 KB

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 12.

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Economic Development concerning the Policy Chairman’s Visit to Saudi Arabia with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

 

The Policy Chairman reported that this was a very useful trip as part of her role as Co-Chair of the Saudi-UK Asset Management Private Sector Group.

 

One Member reported that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Saudi Arabia had mentioned that they wanted a constant supply of senior figures to visit the country to enhance the UK message.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

13.

Lord Mayor's Recent Visits pdf icon PDF 97 KB

Report of the Executive Director of Mansion House and the Central Criminal Court.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 13.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Executive Director of Mansion House and the Central Criminal Court giving Members sight of the Lord Mayor’s overseas visits engagement programme from November 2017 until June 2018.

 

Members asked for information on the Lord Mayor’s visits to be more succinct and to focus more on what has been learnt rather than a detailed timetable of the visit. There was a suggestion that officers only submitted the summary report rather than the appendixes too.

 

In addition, Members asked for a list of upcoming visits of the Policy Chairman and the Lord Mayor.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted;

·         A list of upcoming visits of the Policy Chairman and the Lord Mayor be circulated electronically to the Sub Committee.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

14.

EDO Business Objectives pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 14.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Economic Development updating Members on EDO’s progress towards its top-line objectives.

 

A Member made the point that the Brexit messaging needed to be adapted for international markets.

 

In addition, Members asked for more detail on the metrics that would be used for measures and targets.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

15.

Communications Business Objectives pdf icon PDF 65 KB

Report of the Director of Communications.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 15.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Communications updating Members on how the Communication’s objectives are being met.

 

Members were pleased to hear that the Town Clerk and the Director of Communications had agreed the Communication Team would be publishing its own separate business plan in future years.

 

A question was asked of the Director of Communications regarding a tool to be used on Twitter feeds to measure the diversity of followers. The Director of Communications reported that he would be giving further detail on this at the Diversity Working Party but gave some estimated percentages.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

16.

Remembrancers' Business Objectives pdf icon PDF 68 KB

Report of the Remembrancer.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 16.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub Committee received a report of the Remembrancer updating Members on how the Remembrancer’s Office’s business objectives for 2018/19 were being met.

 

Mention was made of measuring diversity of events, and it was agreed that discussion on this should be made at the Hospitality Working Party rather than this Sub Committee.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

17.

QUESTIONS ON MATTERS RELATING TO THE WORK OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE

Minutes:

Questions were raised as follows -

 

Dress code at events

A Member asked the Executive Director of Mansion House and the Central Criminal Court for information on a review being undertaken in Mansion House on dress codes at events. The Executive Director confirmed that dress codes were under review, but no conclusion had yet been reached.

 

Civic cars

A Member asked for more information on civic cars in the fleet becoming electric vehicles. The Town Clerk undertook to write to the Member separately about this.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

18.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS THAT THE CHAIRMAN CONSIDERS URGENT pdf icon PDF 63 KB

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 18.

Minutes:

The following items of urgent business were raised –

 

Chairman of Policy & Resources’ and Town Clerk’s Visit to the North-West of Northern Ireland

 

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Economic Development concerning the Chairman of Policy and Resources’ and the Town Clerk’s Visit to the North-West of Northern Ireland.

 

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

 

The Chairman took the opportunity to wish Members a good and restful Summer and to thank Officers for all their work over a busy period.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

19.

Exclusion of the Public

MOTION - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 19.

Minutes:

RESOLVED – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

 

Item

Paragraph

20

3

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

Non-Public Minutes

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 20.

Minutes:

The non-public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 28 June 2018 were approved subject to a small change in wording.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

21.

NON-PUBLIC QUESTIONS ON MATTERS RELATING TO THE WORK OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE

Minutes:

There were no questions.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

22.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS THAT THE CHAIRMAN CONSIDERS URGENT AND WHICH THE SUB COMMITTEE AGREES SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHILST THE PUBLIC ARE EXCLUDED

Minutes:

The following item of urgent business was raised –

 

Managing Director Brussels recruitment

The Sub Committee received an update from the Assistant Director of Economic Development on the recruitment process of the Managing Director of Brussels position.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.