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Agenda item

Local Code of Corporate Governance

Purpose

To present the latest version of the Local Code of Corporate Governance for adoption by Cotswold District Council.

 

Recommendation

That the Committee resolves to:

1.    Adopt the latest version of the Local Code of Corporate Governance

Minutes:

The purpose of the report was to present the Local Code of Corporate Governance.

The Business Manager for Governance, Risk and Business Continuity introduced the report, explaining that it set out the principles of the governance framework for the Council. The officer noted that the annual governance statement was presented to a previous committee, and that this report detailed how the Council was meeting the Code and provided a forward-looking Governance Action Plan. The officer noted that two versions were included, one with listed amendments and one without. Where the ‘delivering good governance’ principles were listed, the bullet points following them were different and as such were included in an addendum – along with plans for delivering on those points.

The Committee queried how Council officers were expected to memorise or internalise these principles. The officer clarified that while the expectation would be for managers to have a working knowledge as they were responsible for monitoring and updating their relevant parts, the report as provided was to enable the Council to have an annual benchmark for performance and behaviours, and these updates were in service of that effort.

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer added that the report set out the standards and behaviours expected of the Council, which included consideration of what each team produced that contributed to meeting these requirements, how these efforts were evidenced, and whether the standards were up to date. The officer continued that these considerations were likely to be automatic for officers that worked under these principles regularly, but the report aimed to better present these to members of the Council who may not have been so aware of the terms.

  • The Committee provided an example of how the Local Code of Corporate Governance underpinned Council activity in relation to members. Principle A, ‘Behaving with integrity, demonstrating strong commitment to ethical values and respecting the rule of the law’, was also included in the code of conduct for members.
  • The Committee welcomed that the report included audit and peer review details but queried whether there were any anticipated timescales for Section G – implementing good practice and transparency reporting. The Chair explained that this reporting was anticipated to be issued biannually, as confirmed at the previous Committee, with the caveat that this report may not be suitable to apply rigid timescales to due to its ongoing nature. The officer added that this would be included in the annual governance statement, as well as details regarding CFEU, internal audit, the constitution, and the code of conduct.
  • The Committee noted that there was mention of A.I. use on page 48, and as the use of A.I. was becoming more popular across all industries, queried whether there were any further considerations being made by officers regarding governance in this area. The Deputy Chief Executive Officer responded that the Chief Technology Officer and his team were currently developing an A.I. governance policy which was currently being reviewed by the internal officers before being submitted for approval by the Council. An officer added that there were service-specific risk registers in place already, for example in recruitment where job applications were being reviewed, to ensure A.I. was used appropriately in those cases.

RESOLVED: The Local Code of Corporate Governance was adopted.

 

Supporting documents:

 

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