Recording resolutions (decisions) clearly on minutes of meetings

Question

Our town Council has a habit of  saying in its full Council meetings that the recommendations of various committee meetings were considered  and  "It was resolved" to implement the recommendations of the staffing committee" or Finance committee etc. The issue is that the Town Council  often does not publish EGM's or sub committee minutes, so nobody knows what was resolved.  Or they will quote that  a recommendation was given from a working party and resolve it, again without stating what that was..

Since all decisions should be recorded at the meetings they were made, are the practices above in breach of the Local Govt Act?  The full meeting minutes do not indicate what was resolved but just refer to other meting or working parties.

Answer 1

The procedure as described is not lawful. A council can only decide matters that have been identified in the agenda in sufficient detail to give an understanding of what is involved. Merely referring to an unspecified recommendation by a committee is not sufficient. Minutes must record decisions made by the council. Clearly the nature of the decision must be part of the record.

Committee minutes should be received by the council as agenda items, and the actual minutes included as supporting documents for the agenda. Both agenda and supporting documents should be available to the public.

The above requirements derive from the combination of the local government acts, case law and the Freedom of Information Act.