[Ed Hammond]

Yes - just the one.

Other duties for scrutiny - health scrutiny, education scrutiny (and the role of the education co-optees) and CDRP scrutiny can all be rolled into that single committee.

Quite a few councils have taken this approach.

[Nick Beale]

Quote:Starter for ten: Can anyone tell me what the minimum number of Scrutiny Committees a Unitary authority legally requires - and for bonus points - any good examples of where this is in place. Clearly its a question thats going to be looked at again and again as we look at what we must and what we choose to provide.

The law says "one or more" while the associated guidance says "at least one."

If you take the "one committee" route, I guess you still need something to engage the rest your non-executive members. And while we're making "efficiency savings", AFAIK it would be legally possible to have no cabinet meetings. Just don't mention the democratic deficit.

[Steve Sienkiewicz]

Under the now defunct Audit Commission inspection regime, the effectiveness of a Council's scrutiny function would come into focus. Now that is no longer in place, a weighty potential mechanism for criticism has been removed, leaving it (more) open for Council's to implement lightweight scrutiny arrangements if they so wish.