Issue - meetings

Carried forward from 3 July Council meeting

(i)             to note the management assurance on the controls in place for managing the Council’s compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty; and

(ii)           to note that the Annual Governance Statement, reported to the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee as part of the annual accounts audited by Audit Scotland, would assess the effectiveness of our controls in this area, any residual risk and how we manage it, and that this would be reported to the committee in April.

With reference to Article 14 of the minute of meeting of the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee of 9 May 2024, the Council had before it a report by the Executive Director of Corporate Services which provided management assurance on the Council’s compliance with its statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010, specifically in relation to the Public Sector Equality Duty, and which had been referred to it by four members of the Committee in accordance with Standing Order 34.1.

The report recommended:-

that the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee -

(a)           note the management assurance on the controls in place for managing the Council’s compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty; and

(b)           note that the Annual Governance Statement, reported to the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee as part of the annual accounts audited by Audit Scotland, will assess the effectiveness of our controls in this area, any residual risk and how we manage it, and that this will be reported to the Committee in April.

The Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations contained within the report.

Councillor Yuill moved, seconded by Councillor Allard:-

That the Council approve the recommendations contained within the report.

Councillor Malik moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Brooks:-

          That the Council -

(1)       approve the recommendations contained within the report; and

(2)       note that a review of matters by the Depute Monitoring Officer concluded in respect of Bucksburn Pool “The Joint Statement [between Aberdeen City Council and Sport Aberdeen] was not accurate in stating that the site of the Pool was needed to create space for additional school building”, in other words the press release was untrue, therefore agrees that there requires to be an investigation by Internal Audit into why the Council authorised the release of this joint statement, when the Council first became aware the statement was untrue and why officers never reported the facts to elected members of this untrue statement when they first became aware it was untrue.

On a division, there voted:-

For the motion  (22)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Alphonse, Bouse, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Davidson, Fairfull, Greig, Henrickson, Hutchison, MacGregor, McLellan, McRae, Mennie, van Sweeden and Yuill.

For the amendment  (16)  -  Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Brooks, Crockett, Farquhar, Graham, Kusznir, Lawrence, Macdonald, McLeod, Malik, Massey, Thomson, Tissera and Watson.

Absent from the division  (4)  -  Councillors Boulton, Grant, Nicoll and Radley.

The Council resolved:-

to adopt the motion.