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Overview and Scrutiny


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What is Overview and Scrutiny?

The Local Government Act 2000 changed how councils make decisions and how they are held accountable. Councillors were effectively divided into two roles:-

Cabinet members: Decide on policies and put them into action.  More information on the Cabinet and their Portfolios can be found here:

Overview and Scrutiny members: Examine policies and hold decision-makers to account.

The Four Principles of Good Scrutiny

The Good Scrutiny Guide from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny explains four key principles for effective scrutiny. It says good scrutiny should:

  • Provide constructive 'critical friend' challenge;
  • Amplify the voices and concerns of the public;
  • Be led by independent people who take responsibility for their role;
  • Drive improvement in public services

The Seven Scrutiny Superpowers

The Seven Scrutiny Superpowers set out by Dr Dave McKenna are:-

  • Transparency 
  • Accountability
  • Participation
  • Solutions 
  • Challenge 
  • Assurance
  • Capacity

Overview and Scrutiny Committees

These committees do not make decisions. They review evidence, report findings, and recommend actions. The process must be clear, fair, and constructive. Their goal is to improve decisions, not assign blame.

These committees can require decision-makers to attend meetings, explain their choices, and provide evidence. The same rules apply to the Council’s health partners.

Six committees carry out Cornwall Council’s Overview and Scrutiny work. Each has eleven nominated Councillors, except the Budget Development Overview and Committee, which has 19. The committees meet six times a year, except the Budget Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee which meets at least twice.

The links below show what each committee does, list its members, share meeting agendas and minutes, and explain how to contact the support officer.

Overview and Scrutiny Work Programmes

Each Overview and Scrutiny Committee—except the Budget Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee—sets its own topics for the year. Committees choose the most important suggestions, which can come from councillors, staff, local groups, or the public. Every topic must have a clear purpose, a proposed action, and an achievable outcome. Committees must choose carefully, as they can’t cover everything.

When choosing topics, committees consider:

  • How many people the issue affects
  • How well the service is working
  • Whether there are any financial concerns
  • If they can help solve the problem
  • Whether their work will make a real difference locally

The current work programmes can be found within the Web Library.

How to get involved

  • Attend a meeting - all committee meetings are open to the public and follow a set agenda.  Anyone can come and sit in the meeting, or watch it live online through a webcast.
  • Ask a question – members of the public can also ask questions at Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings.
  • Suggest a topic for the work programme – members of the public can submit a potential work programme item for the Committee to consider
  • Provide evidence – Committees sometimes invite the public to speak or share information to support their investigations.

For more information on how to submit a question or a suggestion for a work programme please visit Ways to participate in Council meetings

Call-in

By law, Overview and Scrutiny Committees can look again at decisions made by the Cabinet, as long as those decisions have not been put into action yet.  This gives the committees a chance to check the facts and ask for more thinking before anything goes ahead. 

Call-in requests must meet certain rules.  These include reasons like:

  • The council did not consult enough people before making the decision
  • There was not enough evidence to support the decision
  • The decision goes against the Council’s agreed budget or policies

If the Monitoring Officer accepts a call-in request, a special Overview and Scrutiny meeting must take place within 11 days.  At that meeting, the committee can:

  • Decide no further action is needed
  • Send the decision back to the Cabinet, asking them to look at it again
  • Send the issue to the full Council to decide (if it’s not a Cabinet decision)
  • Ask the Council to look at the Scrutiny report and make a recommendation

If a committee sends a decision back to the Cabinet, they must look at it again within 10 days.

Annual Reports

Each Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chairman must give a yearly report to the Council in May (except in the year when there has been an election).  This report explains what the committee has done over the past year, including:

  • How their work has helped local people or businesses
  • What results or improvements have been made
  • Any suggestions they have made to improve services
  • How they have responded to Government rules or guidance

The last annual report was made to Council in May 2024.

Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees

The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of each Overview and Scrutiny Committee have an important role in leading the committee’s work. Each Overview and Scrutiny Committee must have a Chairman OR Vice-Chairman from outside the ruling political group.

They help the committee:

  • Focus on making useful recommendations to decision makers
  • Use good questioning and listening skills
  • Stay fair and base their work on facts and evidence
  • Make sure local people’s voices are heard

They also:

  • Seek to build good working relationships with Cabinet Members and senior officers
  • Encourage councillors from all parties to work together
  • Present the committee’s findings and suggestions to the Executive

More Information

The Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules are part of the Council’s Constitution and explain how the Committees must work.

The Overview and Scrutiny Protocol is a practical guide that helps the Committees understand how to work, including how they work with the Cabinet, how they plan their work, and how they carry it out.

Useful External Links

The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny is a national body that helps councils and other organisations improve decision-making and review processes.

Dr Dave McKenna provides independent support to Parliament and local councils, including running training and development sessions to help improve scrutiny:- Dr Dave Mckenna - Scrutiny Solutions.

Last Updated:

27/10/2025