Agenda and minutes

The Committee noted that as part of the new governance arrangements approved by the County Council at its meeting in March 2012, the number of Conservative seats on the Personnel Committee had increased by one and Mr Peter Homewood had therefore been appointed by that Group to serve on the Committee   

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 May 2012 were agreed and signed by the Chairman as a true record.

The following is an unrestricted minute of a matter which was declared exempt pursuant to paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12 A of the Local Government Act 1972

report by Paul Carter, Leader of the Council and Mr David Cockburn, the Head of Paid Service) (The Chairman declared consideration of this report to be urgent on the grounds that it contained information which the Committee needed to consider at this meeting so that a way forward on these matters could be considered and agreed.)

(1) In July 2011, the Personnel Committee asked for an independent review to be undertaken into payments to persons holding the post of County Returning Officer. The Committee approved the engagement of an independent person and given his relevant expertise and experience, Mr Peter Keith-Lucas of Bevan Brittan Solicitors was asked to undertake this review with the following terms of reference:

(i) Examine the organisational and governance arrangements and payments (fees, expenses and superannuation contributions) for Kent County Council elections dating back to 1997.

(ii) Provide recommendations to help the Council to rectify any past errors and ensure its arrangements and payments for future elections are fit for purpose and in line with national best practice.          

(2) In considering these issues, the members of the Committee had before them an exempt report by the Leader of the Council and the Head of Paid Service which summarised the basis upon which the review had been commissioned. The Members also had before them the confidential report of Mr Keith-Lucas which set out in detail the scope of his investigations and his findings. The Executive Summary from Mr Keith-Lucas’ report is provided at paragraph (3) below.

(3)    Executive Summary

• Whilst elections are critical to the governance of the Council, and responsibility for their conduct must be at a sufficiently senior level to ensure impartiality, it is hard for any officer to remain on top of a technical function which really occurs only once every 4 years and improved working with the District Councils is recommended.
• There was a national failure to realise the implications of the omission from the 1983 Act of a power to pay fees to Returning Officers in local elections;
• As the law currently stands, the Council’s present “enhanced salary” basis for remunerating the Returning Officer is probably the best arrangement available. No recommendation for change was  made.
• However, the legislation remains unsatisfactory, and KCC should press to include the clarification of the basis of Returning Officer remuneration in the current review of election law.
• There was a similar national failure to interpret the definition of "pay" in the 1997 LGPS Regulations, so that there was advice from what would normally be considered reliable sources that the County Returning Officer could claim superannuation on the totality of "fees", including sums paid over to District Returning Officers and to elections staff.
• The arrangement for setting fees was deficient, but the revised arrangements for Member approval have resolved this issue.
• There needs to be one officer who is the “corporate owner” of all of the Corporate Management Team’s contracts and salaries, responsible for ensuring that there is proper professional input  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.