Agenda item

Departmental Business Plans 2017/18

Joint Reports of the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection, Director of the Built Environment, and the Director of Open Spaces.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a joint report of the Director of the Built Environment, the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection, and the Director of Open Spaces which sought approval for the 2017/18 business plans for their departments, and also asked Members to provide initial feedback on an early draft of the Corporate Plan 2018-2023.

 

The Corporate Plan

A discussion took place on the draft of the Corporate Plan during which Members raised the following points:

·         That a further opportunity should be provided for Members of the Committee to provide feedback.

·         That the draft presented before Members was not aligned with the aims of the Committee which provides high quality services to stakeholders both inside and outside of the Square Mile, whereas the Plan appeared to focus on the City.

·         That the Corporate Plan would influence future resources therefore the services looked after by the Committee should be included within the Plan to ensure they would not be overlooked financially in the future.

·         That the draft only offered a snapshot of the process and it would have been helpful for Members to be provided with the overall process.

·         That the Plan should reflect the City Corporation as a promoter of business and the nature of the work of the City Corporation and its Committees.

·         That the Plan should include additional information on performance indicators and targets, with timescales and ways to measure success, and information on the main projects and City Corporation customers.

·         That the Plan should contain reference to business continuity and emergency planning under the Prosperity section.

 

Members asked that a further opportunity be provided to the Committee to comment on the Plan before it was submitted to the Court of Common Council.

 

High Level Departmental Business Plans

Members considered the three High Level Business Plans.

 

Members noted that a more detailed plan for the Department of the Built Environment would be submitted to a future meeting.

 

A Member asked a question on how the Port Health Service was being developed to provide rapid clearance of imported food and feed consignments into the UK. The Port Health and Public Protection Director explained that this is a key expectation from ports and importers. Mobile working is one way in which this is being tackled.

 

A question about the UK’s exit from the EU considered whether action should have been taken earlier to look at how relevant legislation may be affected. The Port Health and Public Protection Director advised that a report was being put together on the impact of Brexit and this would be brought before the Committee in the autumn.

 

Members asked that they be provided with more information on the impact of Brexit on the services looked after by the Committee including worst case scenarios to help with future planning.

 

Port Health and Public Protection Business Plan 2017-2020

A discussion took place on the Port Health and Public Protection Business Plan 2017-2020. In response to a Member’s question, the Assistant Director of Public Protection explained that in relation to the cooling tower sites within the City, these were being inspected as part of the programme of work. Members raised concerns that the risks contained with the Port Health & Public Protection summary risk register were out of date and in some cases the targets had not been met. Members agreed that the risks would need to be reviewed and updated before the Committee could approve the Port Health and Public Protection Business Plan 2017-2020 and asked that the updated risk register be reformatted to the standardised template used by other departments across the City Corporation and that a risk be included with reference to the impact of Brexit. Members asked that this be brought back to the July 2017 Committee meeting for approval.

 

RESOLVED – That the Committee:

 

a)    approve the three high-level business plans of the Department of the Built Environment, Department of Markets and Consumer Protection, and Department of Open Spaces;

b)    note the draft Corporate Plan 2018-2023;

c)    ask that a further opportunity be given for Members to provide comments on the content of the draft Corporate Plan 2018-2023 before it is submitted before the Court of Common Council; and

d)    that the Port Health and Public Protection Business Plan 2017-2020 be brought back to the July 2017 Committee meeting for approval with an updated risk register.

Supporting documents: