Agenda item

To consider adoption of the following:-

“Under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, to exclude the press and public from meeting during discussion on the following item on the grounds that it may involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A of the said Act and in the attached Public Interest Test”.

The Chief Executive stated that it is usual when an item is commercially sensitive or affect  staff, a process is followed to consider whether those matters should be discussed in an open or closed meeting.  In this particular instance as Officers it was decided that this matter should be discussed in private but relevant parts of the Smarter Working Project  could be released into the public domain.   He further stated that as Officers it was considered that the Smarter Working Project should not be discussed in full at a public meeting as information is included that is commercially sensitive i.e. value of Councils assets before being placed on the open market. 

The Monitoring Officer stated that the Public Interest Test attached to the report sets out the reasons for having the debate in private or in public.  The balance of the Public Interest Test considers that the debate should be in private session in the first instance in order to enable Members to have a free and frank exchange of views.  The particular legal concerns are that there is sensitive commercial information within the report.  The information falls into 3 categories:-

• Sale of assets to help fund this project which identifies in detail what the expected receipts are from the sale of the assets. 
• Information in detail about the procurement required in order to realise the project i.e. supplies and services the Council will need to purchase.
• References to opinions of Officers about certain characteristics of named  contractors.

Therefore the legal advice still remains that the debate should take place in a private forum.  However, the Monitoring Officer stated that if the Council is minded not to follow that advice as the Corporate Scrutiny Committee intended to at its meeting held on 4 November, she asked that the Council should limit the risk as follows :-

• To avoid reference to the commercially sensitive information in the debate by the Council;
• To give authority to the Monitoring Officer, if the Council decides to have the debate in public, to release the papers and to redact the commercially sensitive information after the meeting.  There are 12 sets of redactions within the document.

The Leader of the Council stated that following the detailed advice by the Monitoring Officer, that if the commercially sensitive information is not discussed in public, he proposed that the Smarter Working Project report be discussed in public and to redact the commercially sensitive information within the report thereafter.  Councillor Alwyn Rowlands seconded the proposal.

The Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee stated that the Executive held on 20 October, 2014 approved the Smarter Working project and thereafter the item was ‘Called-In’ to be further discussed by the Corporate Scrutiny Committee and that Committee requested that it be discussed in public.  That meeting was deferred and it is emanating from that decision that the matter has come before the full Council.  He further stated that briefing session on the Smarter Working Project should have taken place before the Corporate Scrutiny Committee held on 15 October, 2014 to allow for discussions.

Members unanimously RESOLVED that the matter be discussed in public with the redactions as outlined by the Monitoring Officer.