There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of the Authority held on 11 March 2016.

In relation to item 5 of the Minute the Chief Officer advised that a representative from the NHS was now a member of the Strategic Steering Group and that Andy Bruce, Deputy Director, Community Justice Division, Scottish Government was attending the meeting to give a presentation to members.

In relation to item 8 of the Minute the Chief Officer advised that he had invited Chairs of Integration Joint Boards and Andy Bruce, Deputy Director, Community Justice Division, Scottish Government to this meeting.

In relation to item 9 of the Minute the Chief Officer advised that the information regarding the Training and Development Officer was contained in his report on the Criminal Justice Social Work Section 27 Allocation 2016/17.

DECIDED:

(a) That the Minute be approved; and

(b) That the updates from the Chief Officer be noted.

Under reference to item 4 of the Minute of the meeting of this Authority held on 11 March 2016 there was submitted a report by the Chief Officer relative to the allocation of the section 27 grant funding received from the Scottish Government for 2016/17, which was detailed in Appendix 1 to the report.  The allocation of grant to the Authority in 2016/17 was £9,863,256, which was lower than the previous year’s allocation of £10,000,494.  The allocations to constituent authorities were detailed in Appendix 2 to the report.

The report intimated that for the seventh year in succession there had been no inflationary uplift in the level of grant.  In previous years a local dampening mechanism had been applied to ensure that no constituent authority received more than a 5% reduction on any of its core service budget lines but this dampening mechanism had been withdrawn in 2014/15.  The Scottish Government had deployed a new mechanism to mitigate the effect of this which had been developed in agreement with a range of partners.

The report further intimated that £60,000 had been allocated for the delivery of the National Training Programme and the current arrangements with the Authority’s Training and Development Officer would continue until 31 March 2017. 

Since 2008 constituent authorities had provided annual reports as a condition of the grant funding arrangements.  It was proposed that this requirement be removed and that conditions 4, 5 and 6 of the Authority’s conditions of grant be removed.

DECIDED:

(a) That the report be noted;

(b) That the grant allocation as detailed in Appendix 2 to the report be approved and that the Treasurer make arrangements to align payments accordingly;

(c)That a revenue budget monitoring report be submitted to each meeting of the Authority;

(d)That the arrangements with the Authority’s Training and Development Officer continue until 31 March 2017; and

(e) That conditions 4, 5 and 6 be removed from the Authority’s conditions of grant.

Under reference to item 4 of the Minute of the meeting of this Authority held on 11 March 2016 there was submitted a report by the Chief Officer relative to the North Strathclyde Community Justice Authority administration grant for 2016/17, which was detailed in Appendix 1 to the report.  The allocation of administration grant to the Authority for 2016/17 would be £227,158. 

The report intimated that overall the administration grant had been increased by £2,000 from the previous year and was conditional on the Authority adhering to the financial guidelines detailed in the Management Statement/Financial Memorandum issued by the Scottish Government in April 2008 and recently updated.

This was the final administration grant and there was an expectation that it should cover costs incurred in closing the Authority’s office.

DECIDED:

(a) That the report be noted;

(b) That the Chief Officer be authorised to construct an appropriate budget for the administration of the Authority; and

(c) That an administration grant revenue budget monitoring report be submitted to each meeting of the Authority.

There was submitted a report by the Planning Officer relative to the North Strathclyde Community Justice Authority Action Plan 2016/17. The report intimated that the Authority was required to produce annual action plans to progress the overarching strategy of the 2014/17 area plan.  There were 10 actions and 15 activities in the action plan.

Councillor O’Donnell and David Abernethy, Governor, HMP Low Moss, advised that the Freedom Bakery in HMP Low Moss had submitted an entry to the Social Enterprise of the Year Awards 2016.

DECIDED:

(a)That the report be noted; and

(b) That authority be delegated to the Chief Officer, in consultation with the Convener, to amend the action plan if required.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Officer relative to the North Strathclyde Community Justice Authority Resilience Plan, a copy of which formed Appendix 1 to the report.

The report intimated that the Scottish Government requested that the eight Community Justice Authorities (CJAs) create Resilience Plans to ensure that duties were discharged throughout the final year of CJAs. 

The CJA Conveners Group had requested that Chief Officers create and maintain a joint Risk Register for the transition year and a copy of this formed Appendix 2 to the report.

DECIDED:

(a) That the report be noted; and

(b) That authority be delegated to the Chief Officer, in consultation with the Convener, to manage resilience issues so that the Authority could function fully until 31 March 2017.

There was submitted a joint report by the Clerk and the Treasurer relative to remuneration for elected members who were appointed Conveners and Vice-conveners of Community Justice Authorities.

The report intimated that The Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 (Remuneration) Regulations 2007 introduced a system of remuneration for elected members which created four grades of councillors for the purposes of calculating remuneration. The Regulations also introduced special provisions for those councillors who held offices as Convener or Vice-convener of a Joint Board such as the North Strathclyde Community Justice Authority.

Since 2007, various amendment Regulations had had the effect of amending the yearly revaluation to be paid to elected members, including those elected members who were Conveners or Vice-conveners of Joint Boards.  The most recent amendment Regulations came into force from 1 April 2016 and stipulated changes to the remuneration rates payable to elected members.

The amendment Regulations stipulated that, from 1 April 2016, provided that they were not already in receipt of remuneration as a senior councillor of a local authority or as a Convener or Vice-convener of any Joint Board covered by the 2007 Regulations, the Convener of a Community Justice Authority would be paid a total yearly amount of £21,118 and the Vice-convener of a Community Justice Authority would be paid a total yearly amount of £20,063 both inclusive of any amount payable to them as a local authority councillor under the 2007 Regulations.   

The local authorities of which the Convener and Vice-convener were members required, if necessary, to make administrative arrangements with the Community Justice Authority for reimbursement of any remuneration paid by the local authorities on behalf of the Community Justice Authority.  In the case of local authority councillors that were paid, from 1 April 2016, the yearly amount of £16,893 as a councillor, the yearly remuneration of £16,893 should be met by the local authority and the balance of remuneration should be met by the Community Justice Authority.

DECIDED:

(a)  That the revised remuneration levels mandated by The Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 (Remuneration) Amendment Regulations 2016 for the Convener and Depute Convener of the Community Justice Authority, as detailed in the report, provided they were not already in receipt of remuneration as a senior councillor of a local authority, be noted; and

(b) That it be noted that if the Convener and/or Depute Convener of the Authority were not a senior councillor within their own local authority, of if they were a Convener or Vice-convener of any Joint Board covered by the 2007 Regulations, then no additional remuneration shall be due to them as a Convener or Vice-convener of the Community Justice Authority; and

(c) That the difference between such remuneration paid, and that which would otherwise be paid to the Convener/Depute Convener as a local authority councillor, shall be met by the Community Justice Authority.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Officer relative to an additional grant allocation of £187,500 from the Scottish Government for the purpose of supporting a reduction in the use of custody for women.  A copy of the award letter from the Scottish Government dated 22 March 2016 formed the appendix to the report.

The report intimated that schedule 1 to the award letter detailed that the allocation of £187,500 had been made specifically to support a reduction in the use of custody for women and the sustainability of any projects set up in 2015/16 to support the expansion of Supervised Bail and Early Stage Diversion initiatives for women. 

Following discussion with constituent authorities and Sacro it was proposed that Renfrewshire Council be awarded £50,575; Inverclyde Council be awarded £26,010; East Renfrewshire Council be awarded £8,670; Argyll, Bute & Dunbartsonshire Partnership be awarded £59,245 and Sacro be awarded £43,000.  The allocation to Sacro would allow the organisation to continue the Bail service until 30 June 2017.

DECIDED:       

(a)That the report be noted;

(b)That the allocation of the additional funding be allocated as detailed in section 1.5 of the report; and

(c)That grant recipients submit a report to the next meeting of this Authority to be held on 9 September 2016 detailing the use of the allocated funding to meet the objectives detailed in sections 1.1 and 1.2 of the report.

There was submitted a joint report by the Treasurer and Chief Officer relative to the unaudited annual accounts for the Authority for 2015/16.  The report intimated that the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2016 had been completed and forwarded to Audit Scotland for audit.

The annual accounts 2015/16 were confidential until such time as they had been laid before the Scottish Parliament and for this reason had only been issued to members of the Authority.     

DECIDED:  That the unaudited annual accounts for the year ended 31 March 2016 be noted and that the accounts be further presented to the Authority Board on completion of the audit.     

There was submitted a joint report by the Treasure and Chief Officer relative to the annual audit plan 2015/16 for the Authority which outlined Audit Scotland’s planned activities in their audit for the 2015/16 financial year.

The report highlighted that the annual audit plan 2015/16 included a section on Audit Issues and Risks and that within this section, Audit Scotland had identified a risk of ‘management override of controls’. This risk had been included in the audit plans of all bodies which Audit Scotland worked with, in light of international standards on auditing. The inclusion of this risk was not a reflection of increased risk within the Authority and Audit Scotland had confirmed that they had not found any issues on this in previous years.

DECIDED:  That Audit Scotland’s annual audit plan 2015/16 be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Auditor, Renfrewshire Council, relative to the Internal Audit annual report on the Authority for 2015/16. The report intimated that the public sector internal audit standards required that the Chief Auditor prepare an annual report on the activities of internal audit to demonstrate performance. The report must also provide an audit opinion on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the internal control system of the audited body.

The annual report for the Authority was attached as an appendix to the report and outlined the role of internal audit, the performance of the internal audit team and the main findings from the internal audit work undertaken in 2015/16 and contained an audit assurance statement.

DECIDED:  That the Internal Audit annual report for 2015/16 be noted.     

Andy Bruce, Deputy Director, Criminal Justice Division, Scottish Government gave a presentation to members in relation to progress made against CWO recommendations; links to wider Penal Policy Reform; transition plans; transition funding and guidance on the new model for community justice.

DECIDED:        That the presentation be noted.

DECIDED:        That it be noted that the next meeting of the Authority would be held at 10.30 am on Friday 9 September 2016 in Renfrewshire House.