The House of Commons Communities & Local Government Select Committee has launched a new inquiry looking at the effectiveness of local authority scrutiny, and it wants as many people as possible to share their experiences. ADSO has agreed to work with the Committee in collecting and giving evidence.
In an article last month the committee chair, Clive Betts, described the inquiry as ‘long overdue’. read full article here
We are looking for examples of good and not so good scrutiny practice so please send them through to me at john.austin@adso.co.uk by the 10 March. They can be anonymised and will not be attributed to any authority or individuals. We would also like to hear from you if you feel you or your authority has done something differently which has produced positive outcomes.
Here are some of the areas that the inquiry will cover:
- Whether scrutiny committees in local authorities in England are effective in holding decision-makers to account
- Whether scrutiny officers are independent of and separate from those being scrutinised
- The role of scrutiny in devolution deals and the scrutiny models used in combined authorities
- Examples where scrutiny has worked well and not so well
For a full details and the terms of reference for the inquiry please visit their website here. If you wish to speak to the Committee directly, the contact is Craig Bowdery on 020 7219 1432 or bowderyc@parliament.uk.