From Councillor Philippa Hart for the Leader of Council (question deferred from the last Council meeting)
The 2016-17 Second Quarterly Position Statement on Finance, Performance and Risk at STR30 assesses the known risks which devolution could bring to the council thus:
"Tight timescales, insufficient time and capacity to get structures in place, changes in the political and economic climate, failure of some or all partners to engage fully and/or of associated governance arrangements, leading to; delays to the receipt of, or complete loss of powers and funding allocated to the Combined Authority under the devolution deal, resulting in:
Inability of SCDC to deliver its Corporate Plan, financially unviable services, reputational damage for SCDC, wider loss of credibility for Cambridgeshire authorities, reducing the prospect of successful future devolution deals with government".
The risk score is given as 12 and on Amber. The Risk Owner's only comments about how these risks might be addressed proposes this solution:
"Awareness of the timetable and ongoing preparations mitigate the risk of failure to deliver the deal in accordance with the specified milestones".
Please can the Leader tell us where he estimates we are on the timetable and what ongoing preparations are underway to deliver a failure-free devolution?
Minutes:
In the absence of Councillor Philippa Hart, Councillor Aidan Van de Weyer asked this question: “Please can the Leader tell us where he estimates we are on the timetable and what ongoing preparations are underway to deliver a failure-free devolution.”
Councillor Peter Topping provided details on the progress being made on the setting-up of the Combined Authority and he explained that the Council was working with its partners to ensure that this was a success.
From Councillor Philippa Hart for the Leader of Council
The 2016-17 Second Quarterly Position Statement on Finance, Performance and Risk at STR30 assesses the known risks which devolution could bring to the council thus:
"Tight timescales, insufficient time and capacity to get structures in place, changes in the political and economic climate, failure of some or all partners to engage fully and/or of associated governance arrangements, leading to; delays to the receipt of, or complete loss of powers and funding allocated to the Combined Authority under the devolution deal, resulting in:
Inability of SCDC to deliver its Corporate Plan, financially unviable services, reputational damage for SCDC, wider loss of credibility for Cambridgeshire authorities, reducing the prospect of successful future devolution deals with government".
The risk score is given as 12 and on Amber. The Risk Owner's only comments about how these risks might be addressed proposes this solution:
"Awareness of the timetable and ongoing preparations mitigate the risk of failure to deliver the deal in accordance with the specified milestones".
Please can the Leader tell us where he estimates we are on the timetable and what ongoing preparations are underway to deliver a failure-free devolution?
Minutes:
The Chairman declared that the 30 minutes allowed for questions had expired. This meant that there was insufficient time to answer Councillor Philippa Hart’s question and so a written response would be provided.