Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed Councillor Bernards to his first Business Panel meeting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the open meeting held on 23 April 2019 be confirmed as a correct record.

None received.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

None of the decisions made by Mayor and Cabinet was requested for further discussion.

Comments of the Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee on the Select Committees Work Programmes

The Chair of the Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee introduced the report. She stated that at their first meeting the committee observed that most reports would state there was no equalities impact emerging from the proposals, and some of those that do have equalities implications would not be explicitly documented.

Councillor Muldoon said he endorsed this statement, and the Health and Wellbeing Board had made people aware that this was a serious matter. 

Councillor Mallory commented that he was unable to attend the Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee meeting, but would like to say that the Select Committee was trying to raise awareness about the importance of equalities implications in the decision making process.

Councillor Mallory stated that he was concerned about the nature of reports, and got the impression that most of them were being agreed on the nod. He said there were a range of issues that would need to be addressed especially around contract compliance. Councillor Mallory added that work on equalities implications should be similar to the work that was done to raise the profile for the London Living Wage. Councillor Mallory added that a monitoring exercise with targets set out would be useful.

Councillor Millbank stated that consistency was what she thought should be required as there had been some excellent reports in the past that had properly addressed equalities implications. Councillor Campbell responded that she was aware that some reports had addressed equalities implications, but she needed to emphasise that all reports should have this, and it should be explicit.

Councillor Millbank said as a Labour controlled Council, Lewisham should look beyond the Equalities Act, and could also look at Class as part of under equalities implications. Panel Members agreed that the report should be amended to include the points that have been raised at the meeting, and brought back to the next Business Panel meeting.

Action >>>>>> Scrutiny Manager

Councillor Curran said he would like to raise concerns about the inadequacy of the audio systems at meetings. He said this was not available in most meeting rooms, and he had difficulties hearing what was being said in some meetings.

Councillor Mallory commented that when Panel Members scrutinise reports they expected equalities implications to have been addressed properly in  reports going to Mayor and Cabinet. He added that the Local Democracy Working Group had discussed this and would be looking at the way committees were run. Councillor Campbell said she was concerned that this issues would be discussed in silos because of the number of groups involved. She added that it would be ideal to get one group discussion. The Chair said he would have a discussion with Select Committees Chairs and a decision would be made when the report was brought back to the next Business Panel meeting.

RESOLVED that:

i.              Mayor and Cabinet be informed about the concerns raised on the inadequacy of the sound system in the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 203.

This item was not required.

These items were not requested for discussion.

This item was not requested for discussion.

Meeting ended 8.00pm                                       Chair…………..