Agenda and minutes

These minutes were confirmed and signed as a correct record.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) defined how Councils could lawfully deploy surveillance measures as part of their investigations. A report was submitted with proposed amendments to the Council’s RIPA policy and officer guidance, including:

·      new designations of ‘authorising officers’

·    website links to Home Office codes of practice

·    additional guidance regarding online covert activity

·    clarification regarding the duration of authorisations for directed surveillance and the use of juveniles as Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS)

The report also referred to RIPA training delivered by specialist external providers since 2020. In that respect, the Chair commented that such training should be as succinct as possible, focusing on the key issues. 

Arising from the debate, it was confirmed that the Council had not exercised surveillance  activities under RIPPA powers to date. However, in the event of any such activities being pursued in the future, it was agreed that the Leader of the Council should be informed of the circumstances, with provisions to that effect being added to the policy and officer guidance.

Officers also clarified that the use of drones to conduct surveillance would fall under the provisions of the Civil Aviation Act and there was currently no Council policy to cover this. It was acknowledged that drone operators had to be licensed with the Civil Aviation Authority and that the Council would need to undertake due diligence to ensure that any operators acting on its behalf possessed the necessary credentials

Finally, the Committee considered that its decision should be ‘to approve’ the policy and guidance, as opposed to just noting them.

          R E S O L V E D – that:

A.    the content of the report be noted; and

B.    subject to the addition of provisions requiring the Leader to be notified of any surveillance activities being undertaken by the Council, the updated RIPA policy and officer guidance be approved.

An analysis of forecast expenditure against the Council’s overall revenue budget of £11,351k, as at the end of December 2022 (Month 9) was presented. A £394k overspend was forecast, split between the four policy committees as follows:

Community Services: £294k overspend

Housing (General Fund): £8k underspend

Planning Policy: £126k overspend

Strategy & Resources: £12k underspend

corporate items: £22k underspend

This represented a £53k improvement from Quarter 2. Given the availability of contingencies of £484k, a balanced outturn and a contribution to reserves was expected.   

In response to matters raised during the debate, Officers advised that:

·            although the Development Management team largely comprises permanent, in-house staff, all Planning Policy Officers are currently interims

·            a new performance monitoring regime was about to be introduced whereby Members would receive regular reports about performance against KPIs to enable them to monitor the delivery of services under the remit of their committees

·            the financial viability of continuing to offer a cesspool emptying service was being assessed

·            future reports would refer to the occupancy and any further investment need in Quadrant House (Croydon Road, Caterham)

In response to Members’ requests, Officers agreed to:

·            supplement future budget monitoring reports with information about the level of vacancy factor

·            provide a breakdown of the different sources of parking income shortfalls (e.g. in terms of off-street and on-street)

          R E S O L V E D – that the revenue and capital budget positions as at Quarter 3 / M9 (December) 2022 be noted.

The Chief Executive gave an update on the wider Programme, namely:

·         the process for enabling the Council to adopt a new Corporate Plan (to replace the current Strategic Plan in the summer of 2024) which would align with annual budget setting and underpin the approach to commissioning and service planning

·         organisational development initiatives, including the Leadership Development Programme, establishment of a Key Officer Forum and the return of staff appraisals from 2023/24

·         preparations for commissioning services, including liaison with the Local Government Association and other Local Authorities; the need to review workforce skills requirements and to address gaps; and plans for a Members’ workshop in June 2023.

It was confirmed that Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council had been identified as having pursued a similar commissioning model and could assist in sharing its experiences with TDC.

The Chief Finance Officer summarised progress against the £1.7m savings target for 2023/24, including the fact that work to deliver £0.63m had been completed. Of the remaining £1.1m, £0.96 had an amber risk-rating with work in progress to transfer the balance to green. He confirmed the need to release the remaining £250k resource investment from capital receipts to ensure the delivery of the programme (Appendix D to the report refers – the first £250k tranche had been agreed by the Committee in September 2022). Members made suggestions for revising FTP analysis in future committee reports.

The Chief Finance Officer also presented proposals for a shared approach to delivering Revenues & Benefit services with Reigate and Banstead Borough Council. This followed an external review of future service delivery options (jointly funded by the two authorities) and aspired to culminate in a joint Centre of Excellence. It was confirmed that RBBC’s Members supported the initiative and that the Committee’s endorsement of the direction of travel was now requested, pending the submission of a detailed business case to its September 2023 meeting. In response to the debate, the Chief Finance Officer confirmed that monitoring service standards for Tandridge residents remained a priority and would be tracked via the KPI regime and performance monitoring. Such monitoring would need to be incorporated within the legal agreement underpinning any future joint service with RBBC. The debate concluded with Members supporting the direction of travel with a view to it providing much needed resilience for the service and an example of the type of joint working being sought to supplement the emerging commissioning model.

The Head of Transformation and Business Support presented a business case for modernising the way in which residents etc can contact the Council through the introduction of customer accounts, a ‘chatbot’ facility and other improvements. This section of the FTP report included an analysis of existing communication channels by service; the key future requirements of TDC’s customer facing services and associated funding proposals, timelines and risks. The business case identified the need to define a customer contact strategy and favoured the further development of the Council’s current case management platform (Salesforce). The strategy would be developed following engagement with Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 281.

The Committee considered a proposed plan for replacing staff laptops. This reflected the fact that the current laptops would reach the end of their vendor support dates throughout 2023/24. Although the budget had already been approved, Members had requested a more detailed justification for the replacement programme.

Information was therefore provided regarding the age profile of the devices (all would be over 5 years old by the end of 2023/24); the declining reliability of the current stock; the increasing demands of cloud-based applications upon laptops; the need for the Council to upgrade to Windows 11 and the advantage of combining this with a new laptop roll-out. The IT team would identify three potential replacement models followed by a procurement exercise in accordance with Contract Standing Orders. It was also intended to employ a temporary member of staff for up to five weeks to facilitate the new laptop roll-out.

In response to Members’ questions, it was confirmed that:

·         Microsoft would retire its Windows 10 operating system in October 2025 (not June 2024 as stated within the report)

·         the new laptops could be used to make telephone calls

·         the introduction of a dedicated on-line IT support service for Members was being considered.

The total estimated cost of the laptop replacement project was £209,500, based on 230 devices with 5-year extended warranties and the above-mentioned temporary staffing appointment. It was agreed that this cost figure should be incorporated within the resolution.  

R E S O L V E D – that the replacement of the endpoint hardware during 2023/24, at a cost of £209,500, be approved as follows:

·      replace 90% of laptops currently in circulation

·      upgrade RAM specification from 8GB to 16GB to support increased usage of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications

·      roll out Windows 11 with the device replacement

·      purchase extended warranty to cover the devices for 5 years

·      use of a temporary resource for asset tagging and device build.

The Committee considered a report which updated Members on progress towards improving the Council’s approach to debt management, together with a summary of write-offs during 2022/23. The report advised that:

·       despite repeated attempts, it had not been possible to recruit a suitable temporary staffing resource to progress Phase 1 of the Debt Improvement Plan, and the possibility of utilising the associated £50k provision (agreed at the Committee’s 30th June 2022 meeting) for alternative debt management measures now being pursued

·       joint working was underway with Surrey County Council and neighbouring Districts / Boroughs to establish measures to improve collection rates for business rates and council tax

·       various improvements to debt collection processes had been introduced across the exchequer, finance, legal and corporate debt teams, with further improvement initiatives planned for 2023/24.

The work undertaken during 2022/23 had identified the accumulation of historic debt on the balance sheet. To prevent recurrence, Officers intended to submit annual reports to the Committee towards the end of each financial year to allow scrutiny of the write-offs and to ensure that unrecoverable debts are not allowed to persist on the balance sheet. Although the value of debt written off in 2022/23 was significant, the majority was not General Fund related, and a bad debt provision mitigated any detrimental impact on the revenue budget.

R E S O L V E D – that the Committee notes:

A.    the positive steps being taken and improvements made in the recovery of outstanding debt;

B.    the write offs individually less than £10,000 of £238k, the majority of which relate to debts over 5 years old, with some in excess of 15 years old; and

C.   that two write offs over £10,000, totalling a further £33k, require committee approval (Minute 284 refers).

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The press and public were excluded from this item in accordance with Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) on the grounds that:

i)     the item involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act; and

ii)    the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

            R E S O L V E D – that a write-off for the two debts detailed in Appendix A to the report, amounting to £33,562.06 in the Council’s 2022/2023 accounts, be approved.