Agenda item

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Mr Bell – Question to the Committee in relation to Agenda Item 12, ICT Cyber Security Update

‘In agenda item 12 there is a report but the actual content of the item
is in an Exempt appendix.  How are the committee intending to discuss the content in the Exempt appendix and to approve the report unless the committee go into private session?  Is it the intention of the committee to propose a motion to exclude the Press and Public when that agenda item is being considered?  If not, could the appendix please be supplied to those present during the discussion on that report?’

(End of public question)

The Chairman responded by confirming that if the Committee wished to exclude the public and press to discuss the content of an exempt appendix, they would need to propose, second and agree a motion to do so.  It was to be noted, however, that the approval required was for noting only of an update report– not the approval of the report itself.

The Monitoring Officer informed the speaker that the Council attempted to be as open and transparent as possible in relation to all of the information that the Committee was to consider.  The reason why the appendix only was recommended to be dealt with in private session was because the information within the main report was able to be put in the public domain and there was no reason to exclude the press and public.  If Members wished to discuss any contents of the appendix which Officers recommended did contain exempt information, there would need to be a proposition to exclude the press and public.  It was the choice of the Committee if discussion was to include specific details contained within the appendix.

Mr Bell confirmed that ‘such items were all subject to the public interest test and he was unsure which article in Schedule 12A was being relied upon to exclude that item.  It was not stated either in the agenda or papers so he did not know what the reason was.  It was for the Councillors to decide whether to apply that exemption or not and they must apply the public interest test and consider whether the public interest in keeping the information confidential overrides the public interest in disclosing that information.  I would like to see confirmation of this consideration recorded within the minutes and how conclusion was reached’.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that in Schedule 12A the legitimate exemption reasons were listed and also set out in the Council’s ‘access to information’ procedure rules.  Alongside each of the reasons was a statement which read:

‘Exempt information, if and so long as in all circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information’.

The Monitoring Officer clarified that the principle was applied to every recommendation that was made when as Monitoring Officer, he recommended a restriction to any information with papers.  On the Council’s website, the exemption reasons wording was ‘lifted’ when trying to access restricted documents, confirming the paragraph wording in relation to the public interest test applied.