[Victoria Castree]

Hi all,

Who has a public question time slot as a standing item on their scrutiny agendas?
If so, in what format is this and how does it work in practice?

It's something we're looking at again as members of the public don't have this option on our boards (apart from with prior arrangement with the Chair) and we'd like some suggestions to take to the Members on how we could introduce this so it becomes more inviting for the public to attend meetings.

Thanks

[Christine Brain]

(10-09-2012 03:35 PM)Victoria Castree Wrote:  Hi all,

Who has a public question time slot as a standing item on their scrutiny agendas?
If so, in what format is this and how does it work in practice?

It's something we're looking at again as members of the public don't have this option on our boards (apart from with prior arrangement with the Chair) and we'd like some suggestions to take to the Members on how we could introduce this so it becomes more inviting for the public to attend meetings.

Thanks

Hi Victoria,

At Forest Heath DC we have a standing item on the O&S agenda for public speaking. I have attached our Councils protocol for reference.

[Ed Hammond]

It's always a good idea, but it needs to go hand in hand with:

1) selecting items for discussion at committee that will be interesting for the public, and which will encourage them to attend;
2) publicising meetings effectively;
3) making sure that questions can, where possible, be answered then and there, rather than someone telling the questioner that "they'll get back to them on that";
4) a clear indication that substantive action is possible following a public question - otherwise scrutiny might be seen as just a talking shop.

You'll have to decide whether public questions on *anything* at a given meeting is the best way to go - I have always thought that integrating a public portion into specific agenda items might work better, because it makes it more likely that the question won't be forgotten.

[Simon Hill [2]]

We removed the facility for public questions to Scrutiny a few years ago in favour of a general provision for speaking on any agenda item at the Chair's discretion. It depends on your processes for responding to formal questions, but in our case there were a number of practical difficulties with allowing members of the public to ask Scrutiny Chairs questions on the implementation and operation of an executive function.

[Tom Barrett]

We have 'public notice questions'. Providing some basic criteria are met (the most tricky of which being that it should be 'strategic in content'), questions have to be responded to by the relevant department within ten days and the question and response will be placed on the agenda of the next appropriate OSC. Questioners are invited to attend to ask a single follow-up question and officers/Cabinet Members attend to respond to that. Members can ask as many questions as they like

We allow no more than the first 30 minutes of any meeting to be taken up with PNQs (so if there are 10 they'd only get 3 mins each) which preserves the remainder of the meeting for members' scheduled items.

Considering any councillor or resident can raise a PNQ they only make up 10-15% of our total items considered per year.

Though they can be tricky to manage sometimes they're an excellent way for residents to bring to members' attention issues that they think need to be considered; a number have been taken up subsequently as substantive items.

Link to our constitution is here, 10.1-3 of Part 3, Section 1 is the relevant part. Feel free to drop me a line if you want any more info: tpbarrett@lambeth.gov.uk

With the Chair's permission members of the public are also allowed to speak on any item.

[Laura Latham]

Hi,

We at Richmond have a process whereby members of the public register to speak on particular agenda items of interest. The general premise is 3 members of the public on any one item, registered in advance. 3 minutes to speak with the opportunity for Committee Members to ask questions for clarification.

Its not generally widely used unless an item has raised particular public interest / engagement outside of the Committee.

Many thanks

Laura Latham

[Leanne Martin]

We have public questions or statements as a standing item on all scrutiny committees. It is after Apologies, Declarations and Minutes. We allow ten minutes for this although it can be extended at the discretion of the Chairman.
Questions can be on anything within the remit of the committee, and need to be submitted to democratic services by a deadline (midday 5 working days before the meeting). This enables us to ensure that there is an officer or at the very least a written response for the questioner in the room. The member of the public, then gets to ask a supplementary question, which we do not need to know in advance.
I work for Health Scrutiny and this applies to NHS partners too, if a question regards health provision/service then they are expected to respond/attend to answer. Often questions relate to items on the agenda but not always. I think the most questions we've reecieved in at a single meeting was 10. [/align]