[Stephen Rowan]

Hi there,

I have recently helped Croydon rewrite their scrutiny rules in the constitution, so I had a good idea where the relevant bit would be in Ealing's...

Page 159, section 2 (Scrutiny Procedure Rules) of your constitution says..

"All councillors, except members of the cabinet, are eligible to be members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee or of the Standing Scrutiny Panels. However, no member may be involved in scrutinising a decision in which he/she has been directly involved."

So the answer is 'no', that Councillor cannot be involved, but yes, he could be called as a witness. As for considering the work programme when this element is being discussed, I think this would come down to whether they are discussing the merits of the original decision or the merits of whether or not to scrutinise it. In all likelihood those issues would become conflated when discussing items for the work programme. Perhaps a timely reminder to your chairman before the meeting would be a good idea? If he is aware of the rules then it might be easiest (for you) if it is down to him to enforce them in the meeting?

Hope this helps,

Stephen Rowan