Agenda and minutes

The Democratic Services Officer advised the meeting of the procedure.

Apologies were received from Steve Paines.

Councillor Stephenson-McGall had given notice that he would be delayed because he had to attend another meeting. He arrived shortly before the end of the Committee meeting.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to complete the green interest forms circulated to groups in their pre-meetings (which will be announced at the Council Meeting) to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer or a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

There was none.

There were none.

There were none.

These were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Committee is invited to pass the following resolution before discussing Exempt Appendices 1, 2 and 3:

Having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, and in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Committee resolves that the public shall be excluded from the meeting for the discussion of the Exempt Appendices 1, 2 and 3 of this item because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

The Assistant Investments Manager introduced this item. He drew attention to the summary in section 4 of the covering report of the previous stages of the review process and the range of background information taken into account in drafting the new policy. The Committee was invited to approve the draft policy and its appendix, which were contained in Exempt Appendices 1 and 2 to the report.

He gave a presentation summarising the current policy and evidence of its application and impact. He reminded Members that the Annual Responsible Investing Report, which had been considered at the September meeting of the Committee, had contained a detailed account of responsible investment activities in 2015/16.

The Chair proposed that the Committee should go into exempt session before beginning consideration of Exempt Appendices 1, 2 and 3. A Member asked for clarification of the rationale for excluding the public. After discussion the motion was put and it was RESOLVED by 8 votes in favour with 2 abstentions that

the Committee, having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, the public shall be excluded from the meeting for the discussion of the Exempt Appendices 1, 2 and 3 of this item in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

After discussion it was RESOLVED:

1.  To approve the revised Responsible Investing Policy at Exempt Appendix 1 with the amendments agreed by the Committee.

2.  To approve Appendix 1 to the Responsible Investing Policy at Exempt Appendix 2 with the amendments agreed by the Committee.

3.  To delegate action to the Panel and Officers as appropriate.