Agenda item

To present the report of the Head of Audit and Risk.

The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer setting out the considerations with regard to the replacement of Lay Member of the Audit and Governance Committee was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The matter had arisen following the resignation of Mr Jonathon Mendoza as Lay Member of the Committee with his last meeting being on 1 December, 2020.

The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer reported that the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011 required the Local Authority to ensure at least one member of its Audit Committee is a lay member. The Isle of Anglesey County Council has extended this requirement; its Constitution provides for the Audit and Governance Committee to consist of two lay members to serve for a fixed term to coincide with the length of the Council i.e. 5 years, currently until May, 2022. The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 passed on 20 January, 2021 introduces changes to the Audit and Governance Committee in the form of a new name, additional functions and responsibilities and the Act also amends the Committee’s membership making it a requirement that one third of its members be lay members. If the Committee continues with 8 elected members, there would therefore be a requirement for 4 lay members. The Chair will also be required to be a lay member. Whilst the date on which the new provisions will commence remains to be confirmed, following enquiries made with Welsh Government by the WLGA it is understood that it is intended that the Committee’s new name and new functions/ responsibilities will come into effect as from April 2021 and that the changes to membership will become effective as from May, 2022. The Council will therefore have to undertake a recruitment exercise in 2022 to recruit the lay members in preparation for this change.

In light of the above, the Committee was asked to consider whether it wished to recruit a replacement lay member for the remainder of the term to be served i.e. until May 2022 or for the Council’s Constitution to be changed to reduce the number of lay members required to one until the new legislation commences.

In considering the matter, the Committee sought clarification of the recruitment timescale and the likelihood of success given the current pandemic related constraints and the shortened term of service until May 2022 which might be a disincentive to apply for potential applicants.

The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Office advised that the recruitment process does take time from initial advertisement through to appointment meaning that a replacement is unlikely to be appointed before April/May. Added to that are the costs of advertising the position as well as the time needed for any appointee to settle in and to become familiar with the way the Committee operates over the limited number of meetings that will be held in the time the term of office will cover before the recruitment process begins again. For practical reasons therefore, he believed that the second option which is to continue with one member and amend the Constitution accordingly until such time as the new legislation becomes effective is the best option in the circumstances.

Although the majority of the Committee’s members agreed that the second option i.e. to amend the Constitution to allow the Committee to continue with one lay member until the changes with regard to its composition come into effect  - prospectively in May 2022 - when the Committee could then start afresh with new membership is the more reasonable way forward, a minority of the members thought that despite the practical issues in seeking to recruit at this time the additional expertise, knowledge and independent perspective which a second lay member could bring to the Committee would be to its advantage  and accordingly they were in favour of undertaking recruitment for that reason.

In the vote which followed, the proposal to amend the Constitution to reduce the number of lay members required on the Audit and Governance Committee from two to one was carried.

It was resolved to ask the Council to amend the Council’s Constitution to reduce the number of lay members required on the Audit and Governance Committee from two lay members to one, until such time as the provisions of the new legislation come into effect.