Scrutiny

Scrutiny

The Council has four Scrutiny Committees which consist of non-executive Councillors. The Committees have the power to co-opt expert witnesses and members of the public who can contribute to the work of the Committee. The Education Select Committee has statutory co-opted members on its Committee. 

The main role of the Scrutiny is:

• to hold the Executive to account
  
• to assist with policy development
  
• to review existing policies
  
• to monitor the performance of departments or services with a view to improving service delivery
  
• to engage with service users, residents and partners

Scrutiny Committees may submit reports to the Executive and the full Council on issues they have examined. 

The four Scrutiny Committees are: 

• Education Select Committee
  
• Environment and Residents Services Select Committee
  
• Housing, Health And Adult Social Care Select Committee
  
• Overview & Scrutiny Board

The Committees invite partners to contribute to their work and have an important role in consultation before decisions are taken.

Scrutiny Reviews

From time to time in depth scrutiny reviews of specific topics are undertaken by Councillors. The following reviews are currently active:

• Flooding - an investigation into the key strategic priorities for flood risk management and the appropriate consultation with residents (contact Michael Carr on 0208 753 2076 or scrutiny@lbhf.gov.uk).  

Reports and recommendations produced following previous investigations are available below: 

• Offender Management - a review of the effectiveness of programmes to manage offenders offered by the Probation Service and the Council's Youth Offending Team (April 2011).
• Children's Oral Health - an investigation in to the high incidence of tooth decay amongst the children in the borough designed to identify ways in which Council services, working with partners, can contribute to the promotion of oral health in young people (July 2011).
• Get H&F Moving:  A Lane Rental Scheme - a scrutiny inquiry into a proposed lane rental scheme to charge companies a time unit price for works carried out on the Borough's highways (December 2011). 

Annual Scrutiny Reports

You can find out more about the work of the Scrutiny Committees by downloading the latest Annual Scrutiny Report.  All the Annual Reports can be found here.

Scrutiny News

The latest scrutiny news can be found here.