Agenda item
Review of the Members Expenses Scheme
Report attached.
Minutes:
Members considered a report ofCouncillor Munsif Dad BEM JP, Leader of the Council, regarding the recent review of the members expenses scheme and the recommendations of the Council’s Independent Remuneration Panel.
Councillor Dad provided a brief introduction to the report and thanked the Independent Remuneration Panel for their work.
The statutory role of the Independent Remuneration Panel was to advise the Council in respect of the allowances and expenses paid to councillors. By law, the Council was unable to amend its members allowances scheme without having regard to the recommendations of its remuneration panel and this had to be done at a meeting of the Council as a whole, although the panel’s recommendations were not binding on the Council. The Council was, therefore, able to take decisions about members allowances that differed from the recommendations of the remuneration panel.
By law, the Council was required to have a scheme for the payment of members’ allowances. The scheme:
- must provide for payment of a basic allowance. The basic allowance must be paid to every councillor and every councillor must be paid the same amount;
- may provide for the payment of special responsibility allowances which were paid to councillors who had special roles and responsibilities;
- may provide for payment of a childcare and dependant carer’s allowance.
A copy of the Council’s current members allowances scheme was set out in the report at Appendix 2.
The last significant change to members expenses occurred in 2011/12 when the Council had revised its members allowance scheme to reduce members allowances to 2009/10 levels. This was to reflect the position with staff pay, which had remained static since 2009/10. Councillors were also limited to claiming only one special responsibility allowance each.
The Council’s members allowances scheme provided for basic and special responsibility allowances to be increased on 1st April each year in line with the NJC local government pay award and, between 2011/12 – 2015/16, members allowances were therefore increased on this “inflation only” basis. However, the law only permitted “inflation only” increases to be made for four consecutive years without the benefit of a remuneration panel report which considered whether the practice should continue and at what rate. No such report had been presented to Council since 2011/12 and the allowances paid to members had therefore remained unchanged since 2015/16.
As the members allowances scheme had not been reviewed for several years, the Leaders Policy Development Board (which comprised the Leader and Deputy Leaders of the Council’s political groups) had met on 29th July 2024 and had agreed unanimously to reconvene the Independent Remuneration Panel to consider the following matters:
a. whether the Council should again have the capacity to increase allowances by reference to inflation as previously (subject to the legal proviso that this could only be done on four occasions without reference to the remuneration panel); and
b. whether the special responsibility allowance for vice-chairs of overview and scrutiny committees was out of step with the special responsibility allowance paid to other committee vice-chairs and, if the panel considered that it was, what the appropriate level of allowance should be; and
c. whether a special responsibility allowance should be paid in recognition of the “member champion” role and, if the panel considered that it should, what the appropriate level of allowance should be and whether a limit should be placed upon the number of such allowances payable.
In identifying the above issues, the Leaders Board had been mindful of the following:
- That it did not wish to seek an increase in the basic allowance or in special responsibility allowances generally, being mindful of the current cost of living crisis; and
- That it believed the Council’s members allowances were now more in line with the Lancashire norm, having once been somewhat above that level; and
- That the Board did not want to put up financial barriers to local people becoming councillors and wanted to value the work that councillors did in their communities;
Member champions:
The Council was now thinking of appointing a number of member champions to lead on specific issues (such as young people, the armed forces, disability, etc). The champions would be expected to gain detailed knowledge of their subject area and come up with proposals for consideration by the Cabinet and Council. This idea was not unique to Hyndburn. The member champion role was fairly common nationally and had been adopted already by a number of Lancashire district councils, who also recognised the duties and obligations of the role by the award of a small special responsibility allowance, as follows:
Council |
Amount |
Number Permitted |
Wyre |
£250.00 |
5 |
Lancaster |
£257.50 max |
£1,000 total pot to be shared between champions up to cap of £257.50 each |
Chorley |
£399 |
|
Preston |
£1,246 |
3 |
At a meeting on 22nd October 2024 the Leaders Board considered the report and recommendations of the independent remuneration panel. The Leaders Board agreed the following:
Member Champions
The Leaders Board agreed that payment of a small special responsibility allowance was appropriate, as those appointed to the member champion role would be required to attend events and meetings related to their role, as well as acquiring detailed knowledge of their subject area and making recommendations to officers, Cabinet and Council. The sum of £250 was proposed, as this was in line with payments made for the role in Lancashire, subject to a limit of four member champion special responsibility allowances being payable annually.
Overview & Scrutiny Vice-Chairs
The Leaders Board agreed that the current rate of allowance was out of step with the payments made to other committee vice-chairs and that greater parity would be achieved by reducing the special responsibility allowance to £2,217.00. The Leaders Board considered that this sum more properly reflected the nature and obligations of the role.
Increase of allowances by reference to NJC pay award
The Leaders Board considered that it was appropriate to reinstate the annual inflationary increase, given that no such increase had been made since 2015/16. It was also considered that the proposal reflected the increasing professionalisation of the member role and the time commitment involved.
Councillor Khan spoke in favour of the recommendations. Councillor Fazal queried why the remuneration panel’s recommendations in relation to abolishing the allowance payable to vice-chairs of overview and scrutiny committees had not been proposed for adoption. Councillor Dad responded that there was evidence to show that these post-holders were called upon to chair meetings from time to time in the absence of the chair. By way of comparison, their counterparts at Lancashire County Council received an allowance. The Executive Director (Legal and Democratic Services) commented that more up to date information had become available since the remuneration panel had considered the matter. The intention was to normalise the allowance with that of other vice-chairs.
Councillor Addison enquired about the review of the Members IT loan scheme and the cessation of free (limited) data usage by councillors for iPads. Councillor Vanessa Alexander responded that the loan scheme had been under review and would now come to an end. For data security reasons, all councillors would be given a suitable Council owned tablet device. A few different models were currently being trialled. Those councillors currently making loan payments would need to continue to do so, but would still receive a new Council device. Returned Council tablets would be passported to new councillors upon election to office.
Resolved - That the Council:
(1) Notes the report of its Independent Remuneration Panel attached at Appendix 1 to the report, and having done so;
(2) Agrees to amend the members allowances scheme to:
i) create a new special responsibility allowance payable to member champions in the sum of £250 each, subject to a maximum number of four such allowances being payable annually; and
ii) reduce the special responsibility allowance payable to vice-chairs of overview and scrutiny committees to £2,217.00 to bring it in line with special responsibility allowances payable to other committee vice-chairs; and
(3) Agrees to enable basic and special responsibility allowances to be increased annually by the same percentage rate of increase as the NJC pay award for Council employees, noting that this will only be permissible for the next four financial years without consideration of a further report from the Independent Remuneration Panel; and
(4) Agrees that resolutions (2) to (3) above will take effect from 1st April 2025.
Supporting documents:
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Review of Members Expenses Scheme - Main Report, item 227.
PDF 109 KB
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Appemdix 1 - Independent Remuneration Panel Report, item 227.
PDF 259 KB
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Appendix 2 - Members Allowances Scheme, item 227.
PDF 287 KB