Agenda and minutes

The Head of Democratic Services noted that this was the first meeting of the municipal year, however the election of Chair had been omitted from the agenda. She called for nominations for Chair, noting that the Chair in 2019/20 had been Councillor Rawlinson.

Resolved - That Councillor Whitehead be appointed Chair of the Joint Committee for the remainder of 2020/21.

There were no apologies for substitutions.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members.

There were none.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 18 December 2019.

Resolved - That the minutes of the Shared Revenues and Benefits Services Joint Committee, held on 18 December 2020 be noted. (These would be signed as a correct record when a paper copy became available.)

Report was marked “to follow” and was published on 7 December 2020.

The Director of Corporate Services (Preston City Council) submitted a report requesting that the Shared Revenues and Benefits Service Joint Committee consider and approve the Annual Governance Statement for 2019/20. The Annual Governance Statement was set out in Appendix A to the report.

Resolved - That the Annual Governance Statement for 2019/20,as set out in Appendix A to the report, be approved.

Report was marked “to follow” and was published on 7 December 2020.

The Director of Resources (Preston City Council) submitted a report on the preparation of the Revenues and Benefits Shared Services Statement of Accounts. The unaudited Statement of Accounts was set out in Appendix A to the report.

The Partnership prepared its Annual Accounts and supporting financial statements in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and in line with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom (the Code) 2019/20.

Resolved – That the Joint Committee approved and signed the Unaudited Revenues and Benefits Statement of Accounts for 2019/20, as set out in Appendix A of the report.

To be discussed.

Date of the next meeting to be arranged.

To consider passing the following resolution:

“That the public be excluded from this meeting during consideration of the following item(s) of business on the grounds that there is likely to be a disclosure of exempt information which is described in the paragraph(s) of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 which is specified against the heading to the item, and that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.”

Resolved - That the public be excluded from this meeting during consideration of the following item of busines on the grounds that there is likely to be  disclosure of exempt information which is described in Paragraph 3 of 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 and that in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.

Report was marked “to follow” and was published on 7 December 2020.

The Chief Officer (Revenues and Benefits) and Head of Shared Service presented a report on the Shared Service Agreement between Lancaster City Council and Preston City Council which required that the Joint Committee approve the annual revenue, capital and staff budgets in respect of the Revenues and Benefits functions. The Joint Committee would then inform the two Councils of the amounts of their proposed contributions from the Joint Committee’s budget.

Resolved – That the Joint Committee

(i)      notes the latest budget monitoring for the Shared Service as detailed in Appendix A of the report.

(ii)      approves the budget for 2021/22 for the Shared Service as detailed in Appendix B of the report.

(iii)     delegates to the S151 Officers of each Council (by agreement), to determine the cost sharing ratio for contributions to and from the overall Shared Service budget.