Do "in camera" sessions have to be minuted?

Question

The Chaiman of the Finance & Personnel Committee (who is also Chairman of the Parish Council) often goes "in camera" during the committee meeting when sensitive matters are discussed and I am OK with that as I believe that is the right thing to do.  However, he refuses to minute that part of the meeting and doesn't even refer to the closed session in the minutes of the meeting.

Is this legal?

Several times recently Full Council is expected to ratify the decision of the F&P Committee and councillors don't even know what has been discussed and are never shown any supporting documents as they are considered to be too sensitive to be discussed in public and the Chairman will not go into closed session to discuss it but expects everyone to agree with him.

People are too afraid to insist  the closed session to be minuted and no one (except me) is willing to ask for the minutes, which of course are always refused.

If the minutes of the meeting are agreed without note of the closed session is that legal.  What can be done to make the Council's business honest and transparent?

Answer 1

The law is fairly straightforward on this point.  All decisions of a council must be minuted and the minutes signed.  This applies irrespective of whether the public has been excluded from the meeting (which requires a vote by the council).  It is never necessary to record discussions in the minutes, only decisions.  Supporting documents do not have to be made public, although wherever possible, they should be.

Any citizen is entitled to have access to council minutes and to make a copy if they wish.

The net effect is that any decision of a council must  be recorded, whether taken in public or not, and the record must be available to the public.