Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
Minutes of the Meeting of the Management Team held on 13 April 2016 from 10.00 to 12.00 at Thistle House, 91 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh
Present: Bill Thomson, Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland, (BT) Ian Bruce, Public Appointments Manager, (IB) Karen Elder, Business Manager, (KE) Brenda McKinney, Investigations Manager, (BM) David Sillars, Senior Investigating Officer, (DS)
Apologies:
1. MINUTES
1.1. Approval of previous minutes Decisions i. The minutes of the meeting held on 10 February 2016 were approved.
1.2. Matters arising All actions were completed except for the following: Actions i. KE to create and publish the Disclosure Log listing all FOI requests processed. Noted i. The Records Management Plan was approved by the National Records of Scotland on 31 March 2015. ii. HH attended a meeting of the Standards Network in London. The Commissioner’s current retention schedule for complaints documentation including personal data is in line with other regulators’.
2. POLICIES AND PLANS
2.1. Governance matters No matters were raised.
2.2. Policies Revised Out of Pocket Expenses, Display Screen Equipment, Health & Safety and PAA Records Management policies have been approved and published. An historic Performance Management Policy has been removed.
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland Page 1 of 6 Thistle House 91 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HE T: 0300 011 0550 E: [email protected] W: www.ethicalstandards.org.uk The next policies to be reviewed are Holidays and Annual Leave, then Attendance and Disciplinary followed by Grievance and Dignity at Work. The remaining policies due for review in Q2 2016 are outlined in Appendix 1. Actions i. MTM to action policy reviews as listed in Appendix 1. ii. KE to prepare a policy review schedule for coming years.
2.3. Strategic Plan and Business Plan Public appointments report for 2015/16 o 71 appointment rounds were active during the year, three were cancelled, 44 were completed and 27 are open at the year-end (13 in prior year). o BT has now met all Directors-General to discuss the new approach to forward planning appointments. Learning and Justice remain the only DG area to have adopted the approach consistently. o 309 substantive contacts with the office, made up of enquiries, reports and joint enquiry and reports, were received. o Four complaints were received and one was within scope and investigated to a conclusion. There were no material breaches of the Code of Practice. o All PAA training days and SLA reviews are complete. o The applicant survey has been revised and will be run in Q2 2016. o The public appointments team attended a number of outreach events in February and March. o Initial public appointments statistics indicate improvements to the gender and ethnicity balance of appointees. Public standards report for 2015/16 o Local authority/public bodies . 245 complaints (132 cases) received . 214 complaints (111 cases) completed . Five hearings held o The number of complaints against board members of public bodies has increased. o Local authority template documents have been revised. MSP template documents are under review as are investigation guidelines. o BT gave evidence to the Local Government & Regeneration Committee on 2 March 2016. The Strategic Plan for 2016-20 was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 22 March 2016. The key actions for the period are to: o Replace the case management system for conduct complaints. o Introduce user satisfaction surveys for conduct complaints. o Prepare for the extension of the Commissioner’s remit to cover lobbying and adjustments to the rules on registration of MSP interests o Continue working in partnership with the Scottish Government to implement the new strategic approach to public appointments
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland Page 2 of 6 Thistle House 91 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HE T: 0300 011 0550 E: [email protected] W: www.ethicalstandards.org.uk o Redevelop the website, including the provision of an online complaint form. KE presented a draft annual business plan for 2016/17. This has a revised format and references the objectives from the 2016-20 strategic plan. The meeting agreed: o Some minor changes to the current text o The plan should only record actions to be undertaken in the current year, i.e. 2016/17 o The next draft of the plan should be ready for the end of May. The meeting also discussed how best to report the impact of our actions in terms of equality. It was agreed that this impact be considered in all we do, e.g. stakeholder engagement, recruitment, procurement and that reporting is best done through the Performance Management section of the annual accounts. Actions i. BT and KE to meet to discuss how to progress the website redevelopment. ii. KE to update and circulate the current version of the plan. iii. IB, BM/HH and KE to add annual actions to their sections of the business plan by 24 May.
2.4. Continuous improvement We have responded to three external consultations since the previous meeting – Electoral Commission (enforcement policy), UK Parliamentary Standards Commissioner (Code of Conduct) and the Scottish Government (biodiversity). We have invited staff comment on a fourth - a Cabinet Office consultation on changes to redundancy terms. Staff have been invited to comment by 20 April and the Commissioner may decide to respond formally. The closing date is 4 May 2016. One complaint about the Commissioner’s work was received, passed to an appropriate staff member and resolved. The meeting reviewed how complaints were identified and agreed that they were being captured and recorded adequately. During 2015/16, 36 FOI requests were received – 26 relate to specific conduct complaint cases.
3. RESOURCES AND PERFORMANCE
3.1. Finance The budget for 2015/16 was £811,000 and an additional £42,000 in contingency funding was awarded. A preliminary assessment shows cash expenditure was £837.5K. IO costs are currently estimated to be 43% over-budget and appointment activity is 17% under-budget. Both these areas are demand driven. Significant savings were made in the accommodation and printing budgets.
3.2. Staffing
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland Page 3 of 6 Thistle House 91 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HE T: 0300 011 0550 E: [email protected] W: www.ethicalstandards.org.uk KE reminded that meeting that the Commissioner operates a training budget that can be used to address gaps in both hard and soft skills identified at an employee’s appraisal. Training should relate to the employee’s role.
3.3. Accommodation SLAB are implementing swipe card access to all areas of Thistle House. Staff members will be issued new photo passes once the system is operational.
3.4. IT Development of case management system o The Scottish Government’s Digital Transformation Service has been appointed to assist with the development of a system specification and business case and with some elements of the tendering process. o The business case is close to being finalised and the specification is drafted. o Key members of the team are undertaking a time and motion study to assist with the business case. Work on the ICT support tender has stalled. BT and KE have agreed a method for pushing this forward. An upgrade to the telephone system has been purchased. A new telephone server has been installed, as has updated software. Software upgrades to handsets will take place this week. Changes to the system programming have been agreed and will be implemented by the end of April. Actions i. KE to arrange time to work at home on the ICT tender. ii. KE to instruct the contractor on changes to the telephone system programming.
3.5. Other active projects Further to a change to international accountancy regulations, annual accounts must now include much of the information currently contained in the Commissioner’s annual report. The Commissioner is considering producing a combined annual report and accounts. The next meeting (currently 15 June) must be re-scheduled. Further to the strategic plan, the office is likely to have more engagement with stakeholders. At a recent event, IB obtained material on how best to obtain stakeholder input. The volume of post-decision correspondence relating to conduct complaints is significant and appears to be increasing. The meeting discussed the implications of this and whether changes in procedures might improve the process. Actions i. KE to circulate a proposed layout for a combined annual report and accounts and arrange a date in late April to discuss the proposal. ii. KE to circulate a revised date for the June meeting. iii. IB to provide BT with materials on stakeholder engagement.
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland Page 4 of 6 Thistle House 91 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HE T: 0300 011 0550 E: [email protected] W: www.ethicalstandards.org.uk iv. DS to review post-decision correspondence to assess areas of impact and identify possible improved working methods.
4. AOB No matters were raised.
5. FUTURE MEETINGS The meeting agreed the dates below. 10.00 on Wednesday, 15 June 2016 (HH) – to be re-arranged 10.00 on Wednesday, 17 August 2016 (BM) 10.00 on Wednesday, 19 October 2016 (HH) 10.00 on Tuesday, 13 December 2016 (BM) 10.00 on Wednesday, 15 February 2017 (HH) 10.00 on Wednesday, 12 April 2017 (BM)
22 July 2016 Chair of meeting Date of Approval Bill Thomson, Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland Page 5 of 6 Thistle House 91 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HE T: 0300 011 0550 E: [email protected] W: www.ethicalstandards.org.uk APPENDIX 1 – POLICIES DUE FOR REVIEW IN EARLY 2016/17
Policy Action Completion Date Holidays and Annual Leave Final draft close to completion. BT to review. End April Declaration of Interests Form BT to review. Depending on the scope of any amendments, KE to End April circulate and publish or refer to the Management Team Attendance BT and KE to review latest draft and agree how widely to consult. End April
Grievance BT and KE to review latest drafts and agree how widely to consult. End May Disciplinary Dignity at Work Link to Grievance. BT to undertake first review. End May Pensions Admin Instructions KE to draft and BT to review. No further reference to MTM. End May Internal Recruitment & Promotion HH to invite the Casework Team, as part of their development, to End May Special Leave review some or all of the following policies. Substance Abuse File Plan and Retention Schedule KE reviewed 9 December 2015. End May FoI Policy & Procedures KE to suggest revised review dates. End June Data Protection Policy How to make an FOI request How we handle requests for information Re-use of Other Public Sector Information Whistleblowing BT to review. TBC Leaving Moved to 2016/17 TBC
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland Page 6 of 6 Thistle House 91 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HE T: 0300 011 0550 E: [email protected] W: www.ethicalstandards.org.uk