(EDIT, September 2018: We have now published more information about the overview and scrutiny guidance, which you can find here) We are working with MHCLG to produce guidance on the operation of local authority overview and scrutiny, which we expect will be published during December. This guidance follows the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s inquiry into overview and scrutiny, which reported late last year, and a Government commitment shortly afterwards that such guidance would be issued in due course. ...
One of the recommendations made by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee when they investigated overview and scrutiny was that councils experiment with the idea of directly elected chairs of overview and scrutiny committees. Of course, in a strict sense, this already happens. Councillors vote on appointments to scrutiny committees, including chair positions, at council AGM. What the Committee were after was something a little different – something that echoes similar reforms in Parliament in 2010, reforms which are generally seen as having led to something of a renaissance in the impact and effectiveness of Parliamentary select committees. To ...