Our decisions are made by the council leader and cabinet. We also have non-executive councillors to keep check on decisions and performance. This role is called overview and scrutiny.
Annual Scrutiny Programme 2024/25
Our Overview and Scrutiny Committee reviews decisions of the council, looks at how the council performs and investigates issues affecting the district.
What makes a good scrutiny topic?
There are no hard and fast rules about what makes a good topic for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to investigate, but there is one thing you should bear in mind; only issues that affect residents across the district will be considered.
If your issue relates to a small area of the district, please discuss it with your ward councillors.
Items which will not be considered include:
• Individual service complaints
• Topics outside of the remit of the council, where the council has no powers or influence.
• Issues which have been considered by Scrutiny in the last 12 months (this means where an issue has been put on the agenda at a meeting of either the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Finance and Performance Scrutiny Sub-Committee or a Task and Finish Group)
• Areas relating to quasi-judicial functions, ie Planning and Licensing.
Each suggestion will be considered on its own merit, and will be subject to the approval of the monitoring officer. Members of the Committee will consider proposals alongside forthcoming decisions to select and approve a work plan for the coming year. The recommended work plan will be the subject of a decision made at the Annual Meeting.
The deadline for submitting suggestions for scrutiny has now passed. The final scrutiny programme will be agreed at the Annual meeting of the Council on 8 May 2024.
The Scrutiny work plan for 23/24 can be viewed by clicking Read our Scrutiny work plan for 2023-24 (PDF, 13KB).
Please note, the programme is a guide only, and is subject to change
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
The committee can:
- question the cabinet's decisions;
- make its own recommendations to the cabinet;
- ask the cabinet and other decision-makers to reconsider; or
- refer a decision to the full council.
The fourth 'call-in' power usually refers to key decisions ie ones with a significant impact on finances or local communities.
Annual report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Annual report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee 2022-23 (PDF,9.0MB)
Further information
Our constitution provides full information on the role and powers of the overview and scrutiny committee. You can also browse meetings and see reports from the committee here.