Commentary on Sections Introduction Chapter 2: Overview and Scrutiny Committees Section 122: Overview and scrutiny committees: reports and recommendations
293.Subsection (1) inserts new sections 21B, 21C and 21D of the Local Government Act 2000after section 21A of that Act, which is inserted by section 122 of this Act.
294.Section 21B applies where an overview and scrutiny committee of an authority in England makes a report or recommendations to the authority or the executive. It does not apply where the report or recommendation is made to the authority or the executive by a crime and disorder committee by virtue of subsection (1)(b) or (3)(a) of section 19 of the Police and Justice Act 2006.
295.Subsection (2) of inserted section 21B empowers the overview and scrutiny committee to publish its report or recommendations.
296.Where the overview ands scrutiny committee does this, it must give the local authority or executive notice in writing specifying the steps which the local authority or executive must take within two months of receiving the report or recommendations or, if later, the notice. These steps include responding to the report or recommendations and, if these documents have been published by the overview and scrutiny committee, publishing the response.
297.The local authority or executive must comply with the notice.
298.The provisions about confidential and exempt information in section 21D (which is also inserted by section 122) apply in relation to the publishing of a report or recommendations or a response to any of these documents.
299.Section 21C applies where a relevant committee make a report or recommendations to an authority or an executive and the report or recommendations relate to a local improvement target which relates to a relevant partner authority and is specified in a LAA of the authority. It does not apply where the report or recommendations are made by a crime and disorder committee by virtue of subsections (1)(b) or (3)(a) of section 19 of the Police and Justice Act 2006.
300.“Local improvement target” and “local area agreement” are defined in subsection (8) of section 21C and have the same meanings as in Chapter 1 of Part 5 of the Act.
301.The overview and scrutiny committee may give the relevant partner authority notice in writing requiring them to have regard to the report or recommendations in exercising their functions. A relevant partner authority which is a health service body i.e. a National Health Service Trust, an NHS Foundation Trust or a Primary Care Trust cannot be required to have regard to a report or recommendations made to that body under regulations made under section 244 of the National Health Service Act 2006.
302.The relevant partner authority has a duty to comply with the requirement specified in the notice.
303.Section 21D applies to the publication under section 21B of any document comprising a report or recommendations of any overview and scrutiny committee or a response of an authority to any such report or recommendations. It also applies to the provision of a copy of such a document to a member of an authority under new section 21A(8) or 21B or to a relevant partner authority under section 21C.
304.Subsection (2) of inserted section 21D places a requirement on an overview and scrutiny committee or a local authority to exclude confidential information when publishing a document or providing a copy of it to a relevant partner authority. “Confidential information” is defined in subsection (6) of section 21D and has the meaning given by section 100A(3) of the Local Government Act 1972.
305.Section 21D also gives a power to an overview and scrutiny committee to exclude any relevant exempt information. “Relevant exempt information” is defined in subsection (6) of section 21D and means, in relation to a report or recommendations of an overview and scrutiny committee, exempt information specified in a resolution of the overview and scrutiny committee under section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, and, in relation, to a response of the local authority, exempt information of a description specified in such a resolution of the authority. In both cases, the resolution must apply to a meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee or the executive at which the report or response was, or the recommendations were, considered The definition of “relevant exempt information” includes, in relation to an overview and scrutiny committee with functions under section 21(2)(f) of the Local Government Act 2000, information which is exempt information under section 246 of the National Health Service Act 2006.
306.It should be noted that section 21D does not apply to the executive of an authority. This is because the meaning of “relevant exempt information” has been imported from Part 5A of the Local Government Act 1972 which applies to an authority but not to an executive of that authority.
307.Subsection (3) of inserted section 21D enables the overview and scrutiny committee or an authority to exclude if they wish any confidential information or relevant exempt information from a copy of a document provided to a member of the local authority.
308.When information is excluded from any document, subsection (4) of inserted section 21D enables the overview and scrutiny committee or the authority, in publishing, or providing a copy of it, to replace any part of the document which discloses confidential information or exempt information with a summary that does not disclose that information. Where in consequence of the exclusion of confidential information or exempt information, the document would be misleading or not reasonably comprehensible, subsection (4) requires the authority to provide a summary of the part concerned.
309.An overview and scrutiny committee which, in publishing, or providing a copy of, a document, excludes information or replaces part of the document with a summary, will be taken to have complied with the requirement in subsection (3)(c) or (d) of section 21B. This is by virtue of subsection (5) of section 21D.
310.Subsection (2) of section 122 amends section 22 of the Local Government Act 2000 by inserting new subsection (12A) to give the Secretary of State a power to make regulations in relation to local authority executives in England which replicate the provision contained in section 21D.