Governance Review External Group publishes its findings

As part of the Devolution Deal with the government signed in 2015, Cornwall Council agreed to carry out a review of its governance arrangements to ensure that its structure would be appropriate for the changes that would occur with the devolution of powers from central government to the Council. At about the same time, the Local Government Boundaries Commission for England (LGBCE) advised the Council that it was going to undertake a review of the divisional boundaries within Cornwall including the number of councillors. In negotiations between the Council and LGBCE, the Commission agreed to delay the process to allow the Council to undertake its governance review prior to the decision on the number of councillors.

The Constitution and Governance committee of the Council has been leading the governance review process since the spring of 2016. As part of the process, the Council agreed that there should be input by a group of suitably qualified persons from outside the Council who could provide a possibly different viewpoint. The Leader was asked to appoint a Governance Review External Group (GREG) to take evidence, consider the issues and report back to the Council with its recommendations. GREG has now completed its work and published its report. This report will be considered by the Constitution and Governance committee at its meeting on 19 September. The committee will make recommendations that will be taken to the Full Council meeting of 6 October.

The main recommendations of GREG are:

• Retain the current strong Leader and Cabinet model of governance
• Replace the Portfolio Advisory Committees (PACs) with a small number of policy overview and scrutiny committees

plus there were a number of other proposals for more minor changes to the structure.

The full report can be downloaded from GREG report September 2016.

September 2016