Introducing Elected Member Briefing Notes

About this briefing note

Report by: Thomas Glen, Chief Executive

Date: 12 May 2022

Subject: Introducing Elected Member Briefing Notes

Responsible Officer: Lisa Potter, Communications & Performance Manager, Innovation Service

Details

Purpose

To explain the introduction of a new approach to sharing and publishing briefings for elected members.

Briefing information

To ensure a consistent approach to providing written briefings for elected members, we are introducing a new Elected Member Briefing Note process. 

These notes will use a consistent template so that individuals asked to share information with elected members can follow a similar style and approach. 

When to use Elected Member Briefing Notes

Elected Member Briefing Notes (EMBNs) can be used to: 

• Provide answers to requests for more information or to respond to questions which could not be answered at Council, a Committee/Member Officer Working Group or other members forum 
• Provide interim updates on projects and activities or information on those which do not need to be reported to committee 
• Provide information on significant events such as severe weather or ongoing incidents within services 
• Supplement face-to-face briefings. For example organising a Teams/in person briefing for Elected Members which is then followed up with an EMBN summarising the information provided for those who could not attend. 

EMBNs should not prevent responding to questions or queries from individual Councillors. However, if Officers believe that the information they are being asked for may be of interest to more Elected Members they may consider writing an EMBN on that topic. 

Approving and sharing EMBNs

The approval process for an EMBN will be agreed on a service-by-service basis, however it is expected that a Head of Service will sign off the content of an EMBN in most instances. Exceptions are likely to be made for updates on urgent/emerging issues such as severe weather incidents. Heads of Service or others signing off briefing notes should consider the need for any briefing of convenors or other elected members in advance of issuing more widely and publication. 

The EMBN register and web page will be maintained by the Corporate Communications Team. 

The Corporate Communication Team will also be responsible for allocating briefing note numbers, their publication to the website and their circulation to the agreed distribution lists. 

Publishing EMBNs

To ensure transparency and openness the presumption is that all EMBNs will be published on the Council's website. A new Elected Member Briefing Note web page has been created to host these However, there will be times that the information in the EMBN must remain confidential, because (a) it contains information which if disclosed would affect the ability of officers to provide free and frank advice or would otherwise be prejudicial to the effective conduct of public affairs, and/or (b) contains exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 7A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, as amended. 

The title of all EMBNs will be published on the webpage, with confidential briefing notes simply not available as links. However, please be aware that as the titles will be published the decision not to publish some may be challenged via the Freedom of Information process. 

A summary of all elected member briefing notes will be included for information as a standing item on future Council agendas to improve visibility and transparency of information being provided to elected members.