Agenda and minutes

To note apologies for absence and confirm quorum of 11 members is met.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors David Jones, Rachel Melly, Betty Rhodes, and Megan Swift.

The meeting was confirmed as quorate, with 12 members present out of 11 needed for quorum.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests.

There were no items requiring the exclusion of the press and public.

Resolved:  That the notes of the inquorate meeting held on 24 September 2021 be noted and entered as public record of what was discussed.

The Committee considered a report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer outlining membership changes since the last meeting and amendments to Scrutiny Standing Orders section on substitute rules to be proposed to the Combined Authority on 9 December.

The Chair welcomed new member Councillor Tony Homewood, representing Wakefield Council, to the committee.

The Committee thanked officers for considering their proposals on scrutiny substitutes and implementing the changes.

Resolved: That the report be noted.  

The Committee received a verbal update from the Chair on his activity since the last meeting and a number of matters, including:

• The three Scrutiny Chairs have written a joint letter with Mayor Tracy Brabin to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Local Government, Michael Gove, asking him to consider lowering statutory quorum requirements for combined authority scrutiny and allowing remote or hybrid meetings.
• Meeting with Mayor Brabin 1-1 to discuss the corporate scrutiny workplan and the committee’s plans for the year. The Mayor outlined her own plans and expressed support for scrutiny’s critical friend role.

Resolved:  That the Chair’s verbal update be noted.

The Committee considered a report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer outlining the 2021/22 Work Programme which was based on the discussion held at the previous inquorate meeting and subsequent conversations with directors and heads of service.

It was suggested that a special budget focused workshop be set up between 9 December and the Christmas Break for Members to be briefed on the latest draft budget and the budget and business planning process ahead of the fuller draft budget coming to Corporate Scrutiny at the 21 January committee meeting (before it is approved at the 3 February CA meeting).

Resolved:

i)               That the appended 2021/22 Work Programme be approved.

ii)              That a Budget Workshop for Members be arranged between 9 December and Christmas. 

To question the Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin on matters pertaining to the remit of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair thanked the Mayor Tracy Brabin for attending Corporate Scrutiny to answer the Committee’s questions and outlined the format of the Mayor’s Question Time. The session would be split into pre-agreed topic areas and members would be able to ask any questions under those topic areas, and any follow ups.

The topic areas were:

• Devolution settlement and powers vs Mayoral ‘soft power’/influence
• Partnership working across West Yorkshire and strategic alignment
• Gainshare spending and Budget and business planning
• Internal corporate matters

Before questions, the Mayor provided an update on the government’s announcement cancelling HS2 and its potential impact on the CA’s work.

Following questions and supplementary questions, the following was reported to the committee:

1. Direct mayoral powers: Mayors’ powers differ by area as each devolution deal is bespoke. Manchester and West Yorkshire have police powers, but Manchester also has health powers and additional spatial planning powers. West Yorkshire’s planning powers may be expanded following national planning reforms planned by the government and it is felt that additional powers on climate related issues are important to tackle environmental issues, in particular when related to buses and other existing transport issues, which still require government’s final approval.

2. Soft power, profile and influence: A significant part of mayoral power is ‘soft power’ that is based on profile, influence and relationships. The Mayor spends a lot of time building and maintaining relationships with a range of stakeholders, from the partner councils, to local transport operators, and government ministers. As a former MP the Mayor has a number of pre-existing relationships with ministers and council leaders, and the goal of current communications activity is to raise the authority and mayor’s profiles to increase soft power capacity. There is a balance to be made between working with central government constructively and criticising some decisions as necessary.

3. Bidding for funding: A lot of the Combined Authority time is spent identifying or bidding for funding. Officer capacity for this has increased over the years and the CA has been relatively successful in the level of funding won, in particular, the largest growth deal. The capacity to participate in bidding and securing funds is also under review. It can be time consuming and repetitive and many consider requiring central government approval for local plans is not quite within the spirit of devolution.

4. Gainshare spending strategy: is a new form of local government spending which a Mayoral Combined Authority can spend on anything at all. There are concerns that Gainshare spending would be used as a ‘slushfund’ or be distributed along ‘political’ lines. There is a debate as to whether the money should be distributed equally between council areas or spent strategically to fulfil the Mayor’s manifesto pledges and schemes with the highest overall impact, focusing on outcomes/outputs. Current plans are to ensure that all Mayors Pledges have spending and activity against them and all Gainshare spending requests be judged against how they will achieve strategic objectives. All spending will go through the usual  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.