Issue - meetings

Report by Iwan G Evans, Monitoring Officer – Host Authority.

To approve the report together with the revised Governance Agreement 2 Project Plan subject to receiving an update at the next meeting of the Board.

The report was presented by Iwan Evans - Host Authority Monitoring Officer.

DECISION

To approve the report together with the revised Governance Agreement 2 Project Plan subject to receiving an update at the next meeting of the Board.

REASONS FOR THE DECISION

The agreement of the underlying partnership and governance framework was key to agreeing a comprehensive Governance Agreement 2. GA2 is a document which primarily codifies the relationship and commitment of the parties, their responsibilities and accountability as well as establishing the supporting governance framework. The Board was required to scrutinise and agree a schedule for completing this work to support the aim of getting a Final Growth Deal Agreement in place by December 2020.

DISCUSSION

The report was submitted, and it was noted that it had been scheduled for March in order to follow the timeframe of the work programme so as to sign the final deal in December but that Covid had delayed things until this meeting. It was stressed that Governance Agreement 2 was crucial for a Final Deal.

It was noted that a Governance Workshop had been held to identify and understand the matters which needed agreement or resolution between the partners. The key issues were outlined. It was noted that there was slippage to the timeframe which would be challenging and a further report would be required at the next meeting. 

During the discussion the following matters were raised:-

·           The need to ensure that the scrutiny procedure was as straightforward as possible and would be incorporated in arrangements which authorities already had in place, was noted. It was added that the scrutiny timeframe would make it difficult to reach the target of completing the Final Growth Deal by December 2020.

·           It was noted that a further, comprehensive report would be submitted to the members at the next meeting.