The Democratic Services Committee met to discuss the adoption of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy and Cyber Resilience Strategy, a Welsh Government consultation on broadcasting meetings, and scrutiny arrangements for the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee (CJC). The committee noted the AI Policy and Cyber Resilience Strategy, and also noted reports on the Welsh Government consultation and the scrutiny arrangements.

Artificial Intelligence Policy and Cyber Resilience Strategy

The committee noted the formal adoption of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy and the Cyber Resilience Strategy. The report presented to the committee stated that the policy and strategy apply to all users of the council's IT systems, including council employees and elected members, establishing obligations for the responsible, secure, and ethical use of digital technologies across all council activities.

The AI Policy states that AI tools may be used for various council activities, such as drafting communications, developing project plans, conducting research, generating marketing materials, summarising meetings, and idea generation. It stipulates that only approved tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams Premium should be used, and all AI applications must be thoroughly tested before deployment in customer-facing services. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy_eng document includes practical guidance in the form of Do's and Don'ts for AI use.

The Cyber Resilience Strategy outlines a proactive and layered approach to cyber resilience, combining cyber security with business continuity planning to ensure services remain operational during and after cyber incidents. The Cyber Resilience Strategy 2024 - 2029 aligns with national standards and frameworks, including the NCSC's¹ 10 Steps to Cyber Security , Cloud Security Principles, and Stay Safe Online .

Duty on Local Authorities to Broadcast Meetings

The committee considered a report outlining a Welsh Government consultation on proposed changes to the statutory requirements for the broadcasting of meetings. Welsh ministers are consulting on extending the duty on local authorities to broadcast meetings, and are seeking views about:

• whether the duty on a principal council to broadcast meetings should be extended to include meetings other than that of the full council
• whether there should be a retention period for recordings of broadcast meetings.

Welsh Ministers' proposal is to require the broadcasting of meetings of Cabinet, Democratic Services, Governance and Audit, Licensing, Planning, Overview and Scrutiny, and Standards Committees as these meetings cover the main statutory functions of a principal council.

The consultation on extending broadcast of meetings report noted that Denbighshire County Council exceeds the statutory requirement to broadcast full Council meetings by also webcasting meetings of Cabinet, the three Scrutiny Committees, Planning, Licensing and Governance and Audit. The council does not currently webcast meetings of the Democratic Services Committee or the Standards Committee.

The consultation document is attached as Appendix 1 to the report. The consultation document and information on how to respond can also be found by using the following link, with the 28 November 2025 being the closing date for responses: https://www.gov.wales/extending-duty-local-authorities-broadcast-meetings

Scrutiny Arrangements for the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee

The committee considered an update report on scrutiny arrangements for the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee (CJC). The report - update on CJC Scrutiny Arrangements stated that the North Wales CJC has adopted the name 'Ambition North Wales' and its website can be found here: https://ambitionnorth.wales

The CJC's functions currently are:

• Strategic Planning to prepare, monitor, review and revise a regional Strategic Development Plan.
• Strategic Transport to develop a Regional Transport Plan with policies for regional transport.
• Economic Well-being to promote economic wellbeing, and a focus on driving forwards the North Wales Growth Deal.

The report noted that on 28 January 2025, Denbighshire County Council agreed to participate in establishing a North Wales Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JOSC) to scrutinise the work of the CJC. All six North Wales councils have agreed to participate in the JOSC, but establishing the JOSC would not preclude Denbighshire's existing Scrutiny Committees from scrutinising CJC issues of local importance to the county. The Terms of Reference for the JOSC were attached as Appendix 1 to the report.