Agenda and minutes

Nominations are invited for a Chair and Vice-Chair of this Joint Committee for the 2021/22 Municipal Year. 

It was noted that Lancaster City Council had chaired in 2020/21, therefore Councillor Martyn Rawlinson, Cabinet Member for Resources at Preston City Council was appointed Chair for 2021/22.

Councillor Anne Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance and was appointed Vice-Chair.

Resolved:

(1)        That Councillor Martyn Rawlinson be appointed Chair of the Shared Revenues and Benefits Joint Committee for 2021/22.

(2)     That Councillor Anne Whitehead be appointed Vice-Chair of the Shared Revenues and Benefits Joint Committee for 2021/22.

·       Fire Procedures / Mobile Phones / Rest Rooms

·       “Members of the Public, committee members and officers are reminded that under the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014, the press and Public may film, audio record, photograph and use social media whilst the meeting is in progress, for Part A items only, and as long as no disruption is caused to the meeting. Anyone filming is asked to focus their attention on elected members rather than other visitors”. (To be read out if visitors present).

None.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members. 

No declarations of interest were made.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Shared Revenues and Benefits Service Joint Committee held on 14 December 2020.  (Details enclosed). 

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

Resolved:

That the minutes of a meeting of the Shared Revenues and Benefits Services Joint Committee, held on 14 December 2020, be noted and signed as a correct record.

Report enclosed. 

The Director of Resources (Preston City Council) submitted a report on the preparation of the Revenues and Benefits Shared Services Statement of Accounts.

The host authority had prepared the Revenues and Benefits Shared Service unaudited Statement of Account 2020/21 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) 2020/21.

The unaudited Statement of Accounts was set out in Appendix A to the report.

Resolved:

That the unaudited Revenues and Benefits Statement of Accounts for 2020/21, as set out in Appendix A of the report, be approved.

Report enclosed. 

The Director of Resources (Preston City Council) submitted a report requesting that the Shared Revenues and Benefits Service Joint Committee consider and approve the Annual Governance Statement for 2020/21. The Annual Governance Statement was set out in Appendix A to the report.

Members commented that they would like to see benchmarking information against other local authorities for areas such as timely distribution of COVID grants and numbers of complaints, to give some context to the figures.

It was agreed to circulate the respective schedules for audit of the Shared Service, so that the Joint Committee members could have sight of those.

Resolved:

That the Annual Governance Statement for 2020/21,as set out in Appendix A to the report, be approved.

Report enclosed. 

Members were advised of a review of the delegation and procedure rules for the Shared Revenues and Benefits Service, following the recent decision by both Preston and Lancaster City Councils to continue the service for a further ten years.

Resolved:

That the Joint Committee

(1)        Delegates its Revenues and Benefits functions to the Chief Officer (Revenues and Benefits)/Head of Shared Service, as set out in Appendix B of the report.

(2)     Approves the Shared Revenues and Benefits Service Joint Committee Procedure Rules, as set out in Appendix C of the report, to govern its meetings and proceedings; and

(3)     Appoints the Assistant Director (City Solicitor and Monitoring Officer) (Preston) as Secretary to the Joint Committee.

Report enclosed. 

The Head of Shared Service presented his report introducing a refreshed Business Plan covering a two-year period 2021/2023, incorporating the key performance indicators for the services together with ongoing projects and future challenges.

The Plan also contained a financial appraisal of the 2020/21 outturn position and the budget requirement for 2021/22, approved at the previous meeting of the Joint Committee.

The Business Plan was set out in Appendix 1 to the report.  

Resolved:

That the Business Plan for the Revenues and Benefits Shared Service for 2021/2023, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved.

To be arranged later. 

It was noted that the next meeting was due to be held in December 2021 and the exact date and time would be agreed via email after the meeting.