Agenda item

The Service Director Culture, Housing and Regulation and the Director of Legal and Governance will submit a joint report recommending Council to approve amendments to the Terms of Reference of the General and Statutory Licensing regulatory Boards following an Internal Audit report into Taxi and Premises Licensing.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the Terms of Reference of the General and Statutory Licensing Regulatory Boards be amended as detailed within Appendix 1 to the report.

The Service Director Culture, Housing and Regulation and Director of Legal and Governance submitted a joint report recommending the Council to approve amendments to the Terms of Reference of the General and Statutory Licensing Regulatory Boards following an Internal Audit Report into Taxi and Premises Licensing.

The review of the Terms of Reference had been initiated following an Internal Audit of the Licensing Service as part of a wider review of the Service following the corporate inspection of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and the publication of the Casey Report into Child Sexual Exploitation on 4^th February, 2015. 

The Internal Audit had identified a control adequacy issue relating to the Terms of Reference as they did not include reference to the role of Members with regard to safeguarding and consequently, it was felt that Members may not be fully aware of their safeguarding responsibilities.  Internal Audit had recommended that a review of the Terms of Reference should be undertaken to ensure that these roles and responsibilities was explicit.

A review had, therefore, been undertaken within the context of the findings of the Internal Audit Review, the Casey Report and the Safeguarding Framework.  The opportunity had also been taken to amend the Terms of Reference of both the General and Statutory Licensing Regulatory Boards and to make minor drafting amendments to ensure they remained fit for purpose.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the Terms of Reference of the General and Statutory Licensing Regulatory Bards be amended as detailed within Appendix 1 to the report now submitted.