Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Paul Martinelli.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held on 13^th July 2018.

RESOLVED - That the public minutes of the meeting held on 13^th July 2018 be agreed as an accurate record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk which set out the work plan for future meetings.

The Chairman advised Members that the 11^th January meeting of the Sub-Committee would be postponed to a new slot later in the month, so as to ensure report authors and other officers had time to fully prepare after Christmas. The Town Clerk would issue details of the rescheduling in due course.

RESOLVED – that the Sub-Committee noted the report.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Sub-Committee received a Report of the Town Clerk concerning Corporate and Business planning.

The Town Clerk informed Members that a set of 10-12 common core indicators would be introduced during the 2019/20 business planning cycle, to allow cross-departmental comparisons and benchmarking, and improve transparency between departments on common measures e.g. sickness absence and Freedom of Information requests response times. It was proposed to develop measures under the following headings:

·         Workforce

·         Financial Performance

·         Delivery of agreed action

·         Internal customer service

The Chairman was keen to ensure that officers included an explicit measure for maintaining budgetary discipline throughout the financial year, too often in the past, departments, when identifying new funding requirements, had made in-year budget revisions or accessed funding from other sources (e.g. the Finance Contingency Fund), without giving enough consideration to re-prioritising their own budget commitments first. Both the Chairman and the Chamberlain had made it unambiguously clear on many recent occasions that in-year budget revisions would no longer be tolerated.

A verbal update on members’ scrutiny of Business Plans was provided, following on from discussion at the Chairman’s Informal Supper in July, where it was agreed that taking this outside normal committee meetings would be helpful.

The Corporate Strategy & Performance Team and Committee Clerks will contact chairmen to work out what would work best and put dates in diaries during November / December, so that finalised Business Plans can be brought to Committees for approval in the new year. It was agreed that where Business Plans are scrutinised by multiple Committees, one meeting be arranged for all relevant Committee members.

Members said they were encouraged by the proposals, too often in the past business planning had been an afterthought, but this proposal had the potential to generate new useful and regular input from Committees. Sub-Committee Members asked for

Report of the City Surveyor.

The Sub-Committee received a Report of the City Surveyor concerning facilities management.

Members advised officers to condense the number of achievements and targets on pages 14 and 15 in the Report.   

Members were keen to ensure that the Procurement Sub Committee were being kept fully updated whenever officers are minded to renew an FM contract with an incumbent supplier. It was important to carry out robust scrutiny over how they had performed during the previous contract.

A Member queried whether officers had sufficient penalty clauses for service failures. Officers confirmed that the current maximum monthly penalty for serious failures was £3,000 a month, they are looking to increase this over the medium term.

The Chairman confirmed that he had been liaising with the City Surveyor on the issue of the Guildhall security contract and had suggested that more thought needs to be given around outsourcing, with the Head of Security performing the role of the “intelligent buyer”. Officers agreed that a stock-take and market test should take place in a year’s time (i.e. September 2019).

RESOLVED – that the Sub-Committee noted the Report.

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.

MOTION - 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 Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

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 Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2018.

RESOLVED - That the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2018 be agreed as an accurate record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Sub-Committee received a Report of the Town Clerk concerning outstanding actions from previous Sub-Committee meetings.

RESOLVED – that the Sub-Committee noted the Report.

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

The Sub-Committee received a Report of the Executive Director, Mansion House & Central Criminal Court.

Report of the Commissioner of the City of London Police.

The Sub-Committee received a Report of the Commissioner of the City of London Police.

There were no questions.

There was no other business.