The Interim Chief Officer – Finance Performance and Change presented a report which requested Members to note changes to the membership of the Governance and Audit Committee to take effect following the Annual Meeting of Council on 18 May 2022.

She explained that the current membership of the Governance and Audit Committee comprised 12 Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) Members and one Independent (Lay) Member. In terms of the Lay Membership of this Committee, the current Lay Member, Ms J Williams, was reappointed for a further term at the Annual Meeting of Council on 17 May 2017 and, in accordance with the Measure, she is allowed to sit for a maximum of two terms on the Committee in this capacity. This term will expire in May 2022.

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance Performance and Change explained that under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, it will be a legislative requirement from 5 May 2022 for one third of the membership of the Committee to be Lay Members and for the Chairperson to be a Lay Member. On 20 October 2021, Council approved a change to the membership of the Committee to 12 Members consisting of 8 BCBC Members and 4 Lay Members and further approved the appointment of additional Lay Members to ensure it is compliant with the legislation from 5 May 2022 onwards. The allocation of seats to the Committee will then be determined at the Annual Meeting of Council on 18 May 2022 in accordance with the political composition of the Council at that time. Further information on what constituted being a lay member was at 4.3 and 4.4 of the report.

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance Performance and Change explained that in order to comply with legislation, national adverts have been placed in conjunction with the Welsh Local Government Association, as well as on the Council’s website, to advertise the positions. Applicants will be required to complete an application form. All applications received will then be presented to an Officer Panel consisting of the Monitoring Officer, Chief Finance Officer and Head of Internal Audit to decide on a shortlist of applicants to be interviewed. Further information was at 4.5 and 4.6 of the report.

A Member mentioned that when this was brought up at a recent Council meeting, her concerns were what would happen if there were not enough applicants for the Lay Member positions. Now that the applications had closed, were we content that there were enough applicants to fill the required positions. She followed up with a further question stating that if we had 8 out of 8 applications, were they going to be slotted into the position of lay member, or would they still need to pass the criteria. 

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance Performance and Change explained that there were 4 positions available as lay members and there have been applications for these positions but they had not yet been assessed.

She also asked if for example, 5 members of a political party left that party, would this be looked at when they applied for the Lay Member positions as a potential prejudicial interest.

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance Performance and Change was not able to give a definitive answer as that would be considered by the Monitoring Officer, however she believed that this would be something that was considered should it arise.

A Member asked if the cost of requiring 3 more Lay members was to be funded by Welsh Government as BCBC were required to make further cuts to the budget and this was going to contribute to further costs. The Interim Chief Officer – Finance Performance and Change explained that this would likely be covered in the budget settlement, but it was a fairly low cost to the authority.

A Member asked if lay members were reimbursed for costs relating to reading the agenda pack or were the only reimbursed for attending meetings. The Interim Chief Officer – Finance Performance and Change explained that there was set reading time which was covered in the reimbursement once they had attended the meeting.

RESOLVED: that the Committee:

noted the changes to the membership of the Governance and Audit Committee as outlined at paragraph 4.2 of the report to take effect following the Annual Meeting of Council on 18 May 2022;

agreed to receive a further report advising of the appointments of appropriate Lay Members.