The meeting scheduled for Tuesday 21 May 2024 was about the adoption of a new version of Surrey County Council's constitution¹. The new constitution includes a number of changes to the previous version.

Key Rights

The most significant element of the constitution is Article 3, which describes the rights of the public in interacting with the council. These rights include voting at local elections, contacting councillors, and attending council meetings. The article specifically mentions the public's right to attend meetings of both the full council and the cabinet, subject to an exemption process that allows the council to exclude the public when confidential or exempt information is likely to be disclosed. The constitution also describes the rights of the public to complain about services and the conduct of councillors. The constitution describes the council's three stage complaints procedure, and states that if someone has reason to believe the Council has acted improperly they may complain to the Monitoring Officer[^2] who will investigate the complaint as the final stage in the procedure. The public also have the right to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman. If a member of the public has evidence which they think shows that a councillor has not followed the Council’s Code of Conduct they can complain to the council's Monitoring Officer.

Councillors

Article 2 of the constitution describes the roles and functions of the council's 81 councillors. In addition to collectively approving the budget and setting policies, councillors represent the people in their area, dealing with individual casework and act as an advocate for constituents in resolving particular concerns or grievances. The constitution also describes the way in which decisions are made by the council. Whilst the council as a whole will approve policies, budgets, and set the council tax, the leader of the council is responsible for most day-to-day decisions. The leader can delegate their day-to-day decision making powers to the cabinet, to individual cabinet members, to committees, to officers, or to local committees. The constitution also outlines the role of the select committees. These committees can call-in a decision that has been made but not yet implemented to consider whether the decision is appropriate. The select committees can also be consulted by the leader on policies, and on proposals forming part of the policy framework.

Policy Framework

The policy framework is described in article 4 of the constitution. It comprises the statutory and strategic plans, like the development plan, the local transport plan, the youth justice plan, and the waste management plan. These plans, as well as policies and budgets, are prepared following consultation with the relevant committees, including the select committees. The constitution sets out the council's principles for decision making. These include the requirements that councillors are fully and effectively advised by officers, that decisions are only taken after the submission of written reports and that decision making respects human rights.

Access to Information

The constitution includes guidance on the public's right to access information held by the council. In particular the document describes the procedure that the council will follow to allow the public to attend meetings. The council will give at least five days' notice of a meeting by publishing the details at Woodhatch Place, as well as on the council's website. The constitution also describes the exemption process that allows the council to exclude members of the public from meetings. If it is likely that confidential information would be disclosed then the public must be excluded from meetings. Confidential information is defined as information given to the Council by a Government Department on terms which forbid its public disclosure or information which cannot be publicly disclosed by Court Order. The constitution also defines a further seven categories of information that exempt the council from the requirement to admit the public. These include information about individuals, information about the financial and business affairs of any person, and information about any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime.

Financial Regulations

The meeting report pack also included the council's financial regulations². These outline the way in which the council manages its finances.

The regulations reiterate that the council is legally required to appoint a Section 151 Officer³ who is responsible for the administration of the council's finances, and that this role is filled by the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Resources.

The financial regulations describe the process the council will follow to prepare its budget, setting out the timescales for each step of the process, as well as the responsibilities of the cabinet, and the officers. The cabinet is responsible for proposing the revenue and capital budget, as well as the council tax, to the council. The Section 151 Officer will advise the cabinet on these matters. The Section 151 officer is also responsible for approving budget amendments.

Fraud

The report pack also included the council's anti-fraud strategy. The strategy is predicated on the statement that fraud against the Council harms the individuals, communities and businesses of Surrey and that for that reason fraud, bribery and corruption against the Council will not be tolerated, and all such occurrences will be investigated. The strategy is based on a 'zero-tolerance approach to fraud and corruption' and is underpinned by the 'seven principles of public life' that are outlined in the council's member code of conduct.

The document names Simon White, the Audit Manager for Counter Fraud, as the person responsible for receiving reports of suspected fraud and corruption, and provides contact details for him. It also names Alex McLaren as the person to contact if Simon White is unavailable.

The strategy states that the council will not accept cash payments over £5,000, and states that all employees are obliged to report any suspected acts of bribery to the Money Laundering Reporting Officer.

The strategy also included the council's anti-bribery policy, anti-money laundering policy and sanctions policy.

Emergency Planning

The report pack included a resilience policy which sets out how the council plans for emergencies. The policy outlines the responsibilities of the council's cabinet and officers in ensuring that services can continue to be delivered in the case of an emergency.

In particular, the policy states that Susie Kemp, the Assistant Chief Executive, is responsible for the policy and that Ian Good, the Head of Emergency Management, is responsible for implementing it. The policy also describes the council's commitment to business continuity⁴, and states that it will have a business continuity process in place to enable vital services to be maintained in the face of a serious and / or widespread disruptive incident.

Procurement

The report pack also included the council's procurement standing orders.

These orders describe how the council approaches its procurement⁵. These include a requirement to raise a purchase order for all external expenditure, guidance on the use of purchase cards, and procedures for hiring temporary workers.

In particular, the document outlines the procedure to be followed before entering into a new contract. This includes preparing a forward plan of all contracts with a value over the Regulatory Threshold⁶ for approval by the cabinet. For contracts under the regulatory threshold, the orders describe the process for inviting quotations from suppliers, setting out the number of quotations required according to the contract value. For example, whilst only one quote is required for a contract worth under £30,000, two quotes are required for a contract worth between £30,000 and £213,476. For contracts over £213,477, the council must issue a tender. The standing orders also state that the director of procurement is responsible for ensuring that social value⁷ and sustainability are embedded across the supply chain, and for providing commercial support ... where a decision has been made to decommission or in-source a service.

Risk Management

The report pack also included a risk management strategy which set out how the council manages risk. The policy outlined the process for identifying and assessing risk, as well as the council's four responses to managing it. The four responses described in the policy are: terminate, treat, transfer, and tolerate.

The strategy also described the responsibilities of the Audit and Governance Committee, which includes approving the risk management strategy and reviewing the top risks facing the organisation.