Agenda item

TO CONSIDER a report from the Head of Corporate Services (Shepway)

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services (Canterbury) introduced the report. The report detailed the need for a unanimous decision by the East Kent (Joint Arrangements) Committee to allow the East Kent HR Partnership to provide HR services to East Kent Housing Limited.

He indicated that the total value of the services described in the Service Level Agreement was £324,000 over two years.  A term had not been specified in the report but the underlying intention was that the agreement would be for two years.  The contribution made from the HRA of each council to the General Fund will remain the same for the first two years, which had been agreed throughout the negotiations and was now enshrined in the agreement appended to the report.

It was explained in the course of preparing the report questions had been raised about how the EU procurement regime should be applied to both this and the report which followed.  The east Kent lawyers had concluded that there were two reasons why the arrangement was not subject to public procurement regulations:

       (i)    By an exemption in the public contracts regulations 2006, under which the provider is a contracting authority within the meaning of the regulations (a public service itself) and delivering services to the parties under an exclusive right in accordance with a legal or other provision compatible with the EU Treaty.

       (ii)   Where the EU Court of Justice had considered such matters before they had found that, irrespective of the nature of the delivery vehicle, so long as there was a collaborative arrangement between public service parties then an arrangement between those authorities would not be subject to the public procurement regime. 

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement relating to the East Kent HR Partnership he said all parties represented on the Joint Arrangements Committee must give their consent irrespective of whether they are a party to the agreement or not.

A Member sought clarification that the 2 year term would be specified within the recommendation.  It was agreed that the term be incorporated into the minute to clarify the point.

A Member asked a question about the relationship between the council and East Kent Housing Limited and whether the Committee was able to make such decisions on behalf of East Kent Housing Limited.  The Head of Legal and Democratic Services explained that it was in accordance with the management agreement, the principles of which all councils had already agreed, and the lawyers were currently in the process of finalising that agreement.  He said therefore whilst it was not technically possible to decide on their behalf, in the event of a legal challenge the arrangement between the councils and the arms length management organisation was such that there had always been an understanding that a two-year transitional arrangement would apply.  It was accepted that one could not rule out the ability for a third party to challenge a decision if it so wished to.

A Member asked whether the value quoted of £324,000 was for the two year period or per annum and whether or not it included both HR and payroll or just HR.  The Chief Executive (Shepway) indicated that the figure was for the two year period and included both HR and Payroll, although the Payroll element would be paid directly to KCC.  The figure reflected the combined payment made by the four districts to their Housing Revenue Account.  It was agreed that a more detailed breakdown of the figures would be circulated to Members of the Committee after the meeting when they became available.

RECOMMENDED -

1.      That the report be received and noted.

2.      To authorise East Kent HR Partnership to provide HR services to East Kent Housing Limited with effect from 1 April 2011 for a two year period ending on 31 March 2013, subject to the completion of any necessary contract to the satisfaction of the principle legal officers in the four east Kent district councils.