What is Overview and Scrutiny?
Overview and Scrutiny plays an important role in the council decision making process. It was introduced as a requirement for local government following the Local Government Act 2000 (see page 2 of 'A Guide to Overview and Scrutiny').
Overview and Scrutiny (see page 4 of 'A Guide to Overview and Scrutiny') panels review decisions made by the Executive (members of the council’s cabinet) and make recommendations to ensure that the people of North Lincolnshire get the best out of their public services. Overview and Scrutiny panels also play an important role in helping to develop council policies for the benefit of local people.
Scrutiny Panel meetings will normally focus on one or a combination of the following overview and scrutiny functions:
- Policy Review and Development
- Overview of policy, procedure and performance
- Added items
- Forward Plan items
- Performance Monitoring and Assessment
- Improvement and action plan monitoring
- Implementation, consultation and development of health scrutiny functions
- Call-ins (see page 40 of 'A Guide to Overview and Scrutiny').
A work programme is devised and is likely to involve:
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On occasions it may be necessary or desirable to include a mix of these overview and scrutiny functions on the agenda for a single meeting, especially if two or more topics are being scrutinised concurrently.
The panels mainly look at services provided by the Council but can also look at wider issues involving agencies, for example Humberside combined Fire Authority, Humber Bridge Board, North Lincolnshire Homes Board and the North Lincolnshire Adoption Panel.
The council has appointed four scrutiny panels (see page 12 of 'A Guide to Overview and Scrutiny'). Each panel comprises of seven members, and this is politically proportionate of the council's composition.
North Lincolnshire Council's Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report sets out the work of the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Panels carried out in 2006-2007.
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All councillors, except members of the Executive, may be members of a scrutiny panel. However, no member may be involved in scrutinising a decision of another of the council’s other committees/sub committees of which they are also a member. (This does not include scrutiny panel members who may also be ‘lead members’, unless they have a clear personal and prejudicial interest, which should be declared in any case).
The scrutiny panels meet once every four weeks, with additional meetings based around sub group activities. Sub groups collect a wide range of evidence from a range of sources including:
The sub group then takes its findings to the appropriate scrutiny panel, which considers all the evidence they have collected before making recommendations to the executive on how services could be improved or developed to best meet the needs of the residents and businesses of North Lincolnshire.
A scrutiny panel's findings and recommendations are published in reports, which are debated initially at council meeting before being passed onto the Executive/Cabinet.
View the library of reports for the period 2000 to 2007 that have been produced by the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Panels Scrutiny reports.
You can contribute to Overview and Scrutiny in a number of ways select the link below to see how to get involved:
More information: