Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain

The Committee received a Report of the Chamberlain concerning internal charging for legal services.

The Chairman began by pointing out that he was perhaps a more enthusiastic exponent of internal charging than others in the City. He stressed that the benefit for officers and Members alike would be the creation of transparent choices, based on costs, between outsourcing or using internal services. The Legal Services division was a logical first step and from this pilot project, officers and Members would need to carefully consider the lessons and draw the right behaviours from it, with a view to then deciding on whether internal charging can be rolled out to other areas.

He and other Members expressed concerns that the proposed new Case Management System could not be utilized by other departments. If the pilot was a success and roll out of internal charging to other departments was to commence, it was important, both from a cost perspective and for staff, to have one system the could be applied across the piece. The Chairman requested a paper come back to Members giving more granular detail on the proposed charging costs and to reassure Members that the system can be applied across departments (if the roll out was approved).

RESOLVED – that Members approved the following:

·         Note the progress made in moving to an internal trading account model for C&CS legal services.

·         Agree to progress under option 2 of this report, which recommends implementing the internal trading account for legal services from 2019/20.