190329CNPABdPaper3AABoardStandingOrdersCover

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Form­al Board Paper 3 29^th March 2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: STAND­ING ORDERS

Pre­pared by: DAV­ID CAMER­ON, DIR­ECT­OR OF COR­POR­ATE SERVICES

Pur­pose

This paper presents a revi­sion to the Authority’s Stand­ing Orders. Fol­low­ing recent dis­cus­sions with Board mem­bers, the oppor­tun­ity has been taken to revise the Stand­ing Orders last reviewed in 2014, based on both feed­back from mem­bers and obser­va­tions by the Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices as Prop­er Officer.

The paper also presents a review of Audit and Risk, Staff­ing and Recruit­ment and Fin­ance and Deliv­ery Com­mit­tees’ Terms of Reference.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board is reques­ted to: a) Review the draft revised Stand­ing Orders set out at Annex I to this paper; b) Review the Com­mit­tees’ Terms of Ref­er­ence set out at Annex 2 to this paper; c) Sub­ject to any agreed amend­ments to the drafts, agree that the revised and final­ised doc­u­ments should be approved by the Con­vener, Deputy Con­vener and Chief Exec­ut­ive for endorse­ment and pub­lic­a­tion, to be effect­ive from that pub­lic­a­tion date.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Form­al Board Paper 3 29^th March 2019

STAND­ING ORDERS – FOR DECISION

Stra­tegic Context

1. The Stand­ing Orders rep­res­ent a key gov­ernance doc­u­ment, sup­port­ing, com­ple­ment­ing and inter­act­ing with: a) The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 and asso­ci­ated des­ig­na­tion orders; b) The Man­age­ment State­ment and Fin­an­cial Memor­andum agreed by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to estab­lish the over­arch­ing oper­a­tions of the Author­ity; c) The Authority’s Code of Con­duct; d) Vari­ous com­ple­ment­ary statues and reg­u­la­tions, such as the Free­dom of Inform­a­tion (Scot­land) Act 2002.

2. The Stand­ing Orders seek to ensure that the oper­a­tions of the Author­ity are based on the highest stand­ards of gov­ernance, sup­port the Code of Con­duct, in par­tic­u­lar in terms of integ­rity and lead­er­ship, and deliv­er on the organisation’s val­ues as an open, inclus­ive, innov­at­ive and pro­fes­sion­al organ­isa­tion that behaves with integ­rity. The work on gov­ernance also sup­ports our cul­tur­al aspir­a­tion to be the best small pub­lic body in Scotland.

Stra­tegic Policy Considerations

1. The Stand­ing Orders were last reviewed in full by the Author­ity in 2014, and adop­ted in May 2014. While these have been gen­er­ally effect­ive in sup­port­ing good and effect­ive gov­ernance, it is also good prac­tice to review key gov­ernance doc­u­ments from time to time, ensur­ing these remain up to date and fit for pur­pose. Recent inform­al Board dis­cus­sions have high­lighted a num­ber of desired changes and improve­ments, while the Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices has also high­lighted a num­ber of areas where cla­ri­fic­a­tion of pro­cess may improve under­stand­ing and trans­par­ency of governance.

2. In devel­op­ing this paper and Annexes, fur­ther mat­ters have aris­en that may war­rant con­sid­er­a­tion by the Board pri­or to final­isa­tion of the review of Stand­ing Orders.

3. Obser­va­tion of counts of any secret bal­lots: counts have until this point been under­taken by the Prop­er Officer and wit­nessed by a second mem­ber of staff. There has been some sug­ges­tion that counts should be wit­nessed by the Con­vener or oth­er des­ig­nated mem­bers, for example the pro­poser of a can­did­ate for elec­tion. It is noted that in such cases Board mem­ber observ­ers will also have voted and this may be a con­sid­er­a­tion as to wheth­er they should observe the count. An altern­ate may be to

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Form­al Board Paper 3 29^th March 2019

ensure that bal­lot papers are retained for a spe­cified peri­od of time and made avail­able for inspec­tion if the count is chal­lenged for any reas­on with­in that time period.

1. Dur­a­tion of office to an elec­ted role: there is no pro­vi­sion in Stand­ing Orders for the Board to be able to cur­tail the dur­a­tion of a mem­ber in an elec­ted office. Stand­ing Orders of this type typ­ic­ally provide for this action in the event of excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, often with the require­ment that a two-thirds major­ity of mem­bers is required to agree an early cur­tail­ment of term of office. Should mem­bers wish to pur­sue an addi­tion of pro­vi­sions to allow for such actions, it is sug­ges­ted that a major­ity of mem­bers must con­firm to the Prop­er Officer their desire for the con­sid­er­a­tion for early cur­tail­ment of an elec­ted role to be con­sidered as an item of busi­ness, with the Stand­ing orders provid­ing that the required num­ber of mem­bers vot­ing to agree such a pro­pos­al is required to be at least two-thirds of mem­bers eli­gible to vote at the time the item of busi­ness is con­sidered at an appro­pri­ate meeting.

2. Scheme of del­eg­a­tion: a ques­tion has aris­en as to the mer­it of a fuller scheme of del­eg­a­tion. The respect­ive roles and respons­ib­il­it­ies of Mem­bers, the Con­vener, Chief Exec­ut­ive and staff are set out in the Man­age­ment State­ment and Fin­an­cial Memor­andum estab­lished by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. Pri­or to any fur­ther work to estab­lish a scheme of del­eg­a­tion, which may duplic­ate this doc­u­ment, mem­bers’ views are sought as to wheth­er a fuller review of the Man­age­ment State­ment would be welcomed.

3. Sus­pen­sion or amend­ment of stand­ing orders: is cur­rently allowed with­in Stand­ing Orders by a simple major­ity. Mem­bers may wish to reflect on wheth­er there is mer­it in chan­ging this pro­vi­sion to require a lar­ger major­ity for actions of this type.

Stra­tegic Risk Management

1. While this paper sup­ports the ongo­ing improve­ment in good and trans­par­ent gov­ernance, there are no spe­cif­ic stra­tegic risks addressed or cre­ated by the proposals.

Implic­a­tions

1. There are no spe­cif­ic resource or com­mu­nic­a­tion implic­a­tions estab­lished by the pro­pos­als set out in this paper.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Form­al Board Paper 3 29^th March 2019

Suc­cess Measures

1. The Board will be able to assess the suc­cess of the revised Stand­ing Orders pro­posed through ongo­ing self-eval­u­ation of Board trans­par­ency and effectiveness.

Dav­id Camer­on 13 March 2019 davidcameron@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Sup­port­ing Information

Pro­posed revised Stand­ing Orders are presen­ted at Annex I to this paper.

The terms of ref­er­ence for the Board’s Audit and Risk, Staff­ing and Recruit­ment and Fin­ance and Deliv­ery Com­mit­tees are also presen­ted at Annex 2 to this paper. These Com­mit­tees are estab­lished under the Board’s Stand­ing Orders and it is there­fore appro­pri­ate to review these Terms of Ref­er­ence at this point.

Fol­low­ing approv­al of revised Stand­ing Orders by the Board, the Plan­ning Committee’s Stand­ing Orders will be reviewed to determ­ine wheth­er any changes in Board Stand­ing Orders require con­sequent adjust­ment to the Plan­ning Committee’s Stand­ing Orders. For the avoid­ance of doubt, the terms of the exist­ing Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Stand­ing Orders shall remain in force pending a full review.