West Devon Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Scrutiny Committee has 15 Members which support the work of the Hub Committee and the Council as a whole. Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings are live streamed on the internet. You can watch the full proceedings live on our Engagement Portal.   Reports and recommendations are put by the Committee to the Hub Committee and the Council to advise on policy, budget and service delivery.   The Overview and Scrutiny Committee also monitors the decisions of the Hub Committee. They have the ability to 'call-in' decisions made by the Hub Committee which are still to be implemented. This enables the Scrutiny Committee to consider whether the decision made was appropriate. The Committee can then decide if it should recommend that the Hub Committee or Full Council reconsider the decision.    The committee may also be consulted by the Hub Committee or the Council on forthcoming decisions and the development of policy.

Can the Public attend and speak at meetings?

Members of the public may raise issues and ask questions at meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. They can also propose agenda items. To find out more about public participation at Overview and Scrutiny meetings, please see this page.

Policy Development and Review   In this role, Scrutiny Committees can review the Council's policies to assess whether the intended policy outcomes have been achieved and can also assist the Council during the early development of new policies and the formulation of key plans.   Very often policy review can lead to recommendations to develop new policy. This work can be carried out by a Scrutiny Committee or a Committee may assign this task to a smaller number of Members in the form of a Task and Finish Group.     Carefully choosing which topics to review can help the Council to focus on the issues that matter to local people most and derive real outcomes for them.

Annual Report

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee Annual Report for 2020-21 has now been published. You can download a copy below: Overview and Scrutiny Report for 2020/21 (PDF) [5MB]