Meetings

8.1 The Committee discussed the evidence received from the Minister for Local Government and Government Business.

Lesley Griffiths AM, Minister for Local Government and Government Business

Debra Carter, Deputy Director, Local Government Finance and Performance

Lisa James, Deputy Director, Democracy, Ethics and Partnerships

5.1 The Committee received evidence from Lesley Griffiths AM, Minister for Local Government and Government Business, and her officials.

5.2 During the session, the Minister agreed to provide the following:

• A note on the work currently being carried out by the Welsh Government on incidences whereby one council inherits a deficit from another in a merger.
• A list of the community and town councils which have received funding to establish an online presence, and which of these now have an online presence.
• The number of community and county council seats that have been long-term vacant.
• A breakdown of the gender, age and ethnicity statistics for county councillors, and a comparative breakdown for community councillors.

CELG(4)-13-13 – Paper 1

Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Local Government and Government Business

Reg Kilpatrick, Director Local Government & Public Service

Owain Lloyd, Deputy Director of Operations

Break – 10.20 – 10.30

2.1 The Committee heard evidence from the Minister for Local Government and Government Business. The Minister agreed to provide notes on the following:

The level and use of local authority reserves;

Update in the autumn on how local authorities are using the additional £1.25m funding allocated to provide support for broadcasting, remote attendance and community council websites;

The commencement in the Local Government Measure of the section relating to remote attendance;

The availability of a gender audit within the salary information that local authorities are required to provide;

An update in due course on the timetable for introducing new regulations for the council tax reduction schemes;

The possibility of requiring Councillors’ to publish their declarations and interests online;

Update on the submission to the Silk Commission requesting that all matters regarding local government elections to be devolved and with the exception of registration and franchise and reasoning behind this;

The possible issues surrounding the structure of voting systems in local government if local governments were re-organised and election powers were not devolved.

When available, the evaluation report of the last round of outcome agreements;

The current funding arrangements of SARC’s and IDVA’s and future plans;

When available, a report on how the Anti-Human Trafficking Leadership Group’s Delivery Plan has been taken forward;

Update on the issues raised and discussed at the Ministers forthcoming meeting with the Probation Service;

What work has been done regarding the issue of stalking and how the Welsh Government has engaged with the UK Government’s stalking agenda;

The Scrutiny arrangements in place for the four regional education consortia across Wales;

Further information on the Public Service Leadership Group.