Decision details

(Time: 4.22pm to 4.28pm)

At a recent meeting of the Health and Safety Review Board, training for Members on health and safety matters was discussed.  It was considered that as Executive Members had a health and safety responsibility for the Council, then they should receive appropriate training in their roles and responsibilities.  Similarly, the Scrutiny Committee had a responsibility to scrutinise the Executive and therefore its Members should also be trained.  It was considered that this training should be open to all Members of the Council but should be mandatory for Executive and Scrutiny Committee Members to be accredited to the IOSH (Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) 'Safety for Senior Executives' training standard.  The training had already been given to Directors and Deputy Directors and had been valued by the attendees. 

The Vice-Chair of the Scrutiny Committee expressed concern at the principle of mandatory training for Scrutiny Members in every aspect of their responsibility when scrutinising the Executive.  He accepted the case for health and safety training but believed that training as a legal requirement was going too far. 

The Executive supported the need for the training but asked that options were given when arranging dates for sessions. 

R E C O M M E N D E D     (by six votes to nil)

that the Council makes it a mandatory requirement for all Members of the Executive and the Scrutiny Committee to be accredited to the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health 'Safety for Senior Executives' training standard and request the Strategic Director and Monitoring Officer to arrange evening training session options to which other Members of the Council are to be invited also.