Minutes

Minutes are another area where there are often problems from an audit perspective. Common problems which we see are;

Confidential Minutes

It is common for Councils to hold part of a meeting as a confidential meeting and to exclude members of the press and public, these are often referred to as 'Part 2'. There is often confusion as to the status 'Part 2' Minutes with Councils believing that the Minutes of confidential sessions do not have to be published.

The position in law is that there is no provision for any Minutes of local councils to be withheld from public scrutiny.

Section 228 of the Local Government Act gives rights to 'a local government elector' to have access to, and make copies of, Minutes and 228 (7) makes it an offence, punishable by a fine, not to make Minutes available.

There is no means for a local Council to keep Minutes of a meeting confidential, so Councils should ensure that Minutes of such meetings are drafted in such a way that they may be published. Councils should also avoid drafting two sets of Minutes of such meetings as any Minute must be made available and cannot be withheld. There is very likely more problems with a set of Minutes drafted on the assumption that they will not need to be published than with publishing a carefully drafted set of Minutes which are then available for public inspection.

Signing of Minutes

The Local Government Act 1972 sets out in Schedule 12 Para 41 that Minutes need to be signed with 'each leaf comprising those minutes being initialled'' . This must be done at the same or the next meeting.

It is very common for Minutes not to be fully signed and initialled, and also for them not to be signed at the the next meeting as required.If they are not signed as required under the 1972 Act this is a breach of the law.