Agenda item

To ask Members of the Democracy Services Committee for their:

·         observations in order to respond to the consultation by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales.

·         observations with regards to reviewing the responsibilities of the Chairs of the committees.

To accept the report noting the Committee's observations for formulating a response to the Independent Panel's draft report consultation on Financial Remuneration and on the arrangements to review senior salaries.

RESOLVED:

To accept the report noting the Committee's observations for formulating a response to the Independent Remuneration Panel's consultation on the draft report and on the arrangements for reviewing senior salaries.

The report was submitted which recommended increasing Councillors' basic salary to £17,600, which was a 4.76% increase. Observations were requested to enable the Council to formulate a response fo the Independent Remuneration Panel's draft report consultation which outlined the changes proposed for the 2023/24 financial year. It was explained that the Panel's responsibility was to set the salary levels of Wales's Councillors, and that their role was fully independent.

It was added that Members were not obliged to accept the salary, they were entitled to surrender the salary and would have to do so in writing to the Head of Democratic Services.

It was reported that the maximum number of senior salaries that could be paid was 18, and the report detailed recommendations from the Panel's perspective. It was added that 17 of the 18 senior salaries had been allocated for 2022/23, as a result of the changes in appointing a Lay Member as Chair of the Governance and Audit Committee. Th Committee was requested to review the situation for 2023/24. It was added that a list of the senior salaries could be seen in paragraph 17 of the report.

It was noted that the report referred to reviewing the responsibilities of Committee Chairs, therefore the Democracy team would try to assess the work pressures and responsibilities on the Chairs over the coming months. The results would be reported at the next meeting of the Democracy Services Committee in March 2023, in order to draw up a recommendation for the annual meeting of the Full Council in May.

During the discussion the following observations were made:

-        A comment was made that Members had already been criticised for accepting a salary increase.

-        It was noted that Members could claim care costs reimbursements to assist them with childcare and that they were entitled to maternity leave and it was questioned whether all Members were aware of this.

-        It was added that this also applied to carers with dependants, and that it was important to promote the support that was available.

-        Disappointment was expressed that there was no difference in the Salaries of Town Councillors and Councillors of rural areas. It was added that Councillors in urban areas did not need to use their cars or pay to hire rooms for holding surgeries, meaning that they saved a lot of money compared with Councillors in rural wards. It was believed that the lack of consideration to the added costs for rural Councillors was unfair.

-        It was reiterated that the fairest way of determining which Committee Chairs should receive the senior salary would be to look at their individual role and workload.

In response to the observations:

-        It was noted that the Service was continuing to take steps to raise awareness of what was available to Members in terms of reimbursement of care costs. Reference was made to the Members' Handbook which referred to what was available. 

-        It was noted that all the information was available in the full report by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales, and the Democracy and Language Services Manager could send a copy of the full report to the Members should they wish.

-        It was added that the Service could arrange to include the information in a more obvious place on the Members' Intranet.

-        It was added that Officers would question Committee Chairs about their responsibilities and the demands there were on them as Committee Chairs in order to receive their comments for further consideration during the March meeting of this Committee.