Issue - meetings

Report by Corporate Director Alistair Cunningham

Cllr Pauline Church presented a report which provided an update on the changes to the governance arrangements to the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SWLEP) and seeking approval to implement the necessary changes required.

Cllr Church explained that the Government undertook a review of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in 2018. One of the key recommendations to come out of this review was that LEPs should have a legal personality. Another recommendation from the review is that LEPs should have a secretariat independent of local authorities and other organisations that is answerable to the LEP Board.

The SWLEP Board took the decision in September 2018 to establish the LEP as a company limited by guarantee with the objective of being fully incorporated by 1st April 2019. The SWLEP has since incorporated on 14 January 2019.

In response to questions from Cllr Thorn about (i) the Articles of Association; (ii) Representation on the Board; (iii) conflicts of interest; (iv) role of the Accountable Body; and (v) scrutiny function, Cllr Church and officers confirmed (i) that the issues with the Articles of Association have now been resolved; (ii) and (iii)  the Leader of the Council would no longer be a member of the Accountable Body as her inclusion in the membership would generate a number of conflicts of interest. The Leaders position would be taken by the appropriate Cabinet member; (iv) the Local Authority would continue to receive funding from the Government, the Accountable Body would be responsible for proposing schemes and how the funding is allocated and the Council’s Section 151 officer would be responsible for the oversight and monitoring of the proposals; (v) it is proposed that democratic accountability would change the current structures to form a Joint Scrutiny Task Group comprising four elected Councillors from each of the two Unitary Authorities to perform all overview and scrutiny functions on behalf of both the Councils and the SWLEP.

Cllr Hill explained that he had been involved in the scrutiny of the current LEP for the past three years and he confirmed that further discussions were taking place about the future scrutiny function and process.

Cllr Britton, Chairman of the Audit Committee, reminded the Cabinet that the Audit Committee had a responsibility for partnerships and there was a requirement to seek a separation between the work of the Audit Committee and the Task Group.

In response to questions from Cllr Wickham about (i) the vote of the current LEP towards the new structures; (ii) the TUPE of employees to the new structure; (iii) the membership of the new SWLEP Board; (iv) The quality and level of scrutiny going forward, Cllr Church confirmed that (i) the vote to move towards employing the new LEP structures was unanimous agreed by the LEP; (ii) officers are currently located at the LEP office environment although employed by Wiltshire Council; (iii) the Leaders of the two Authorities would no longer be members of the new SWLEP  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40