Issue - meetings

1.      That the creation of a Legal Services partnership arrangement with Brighton & Hove City Council and East and West Sussex County Councils to be known as Orbis Public Law, with effect from 1 April 2016, be approved.

2.      That the establishment of a Joint Committee as the governing body for Orbis Public Law to oversee the discharge of the Council’s Legal Services function be agreed.

3.       That the attached terms of reference for the Joint Committee and the appointment of the Cabinet Member for Business Services and Resident Experience to that Committee be approved.

4.       That officers develop a Business Case for a Limited Company (which would be jointly owned by the four authorities) as the vehicle for an Alternative Business Structure (ABS), in a form approved by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority and if appropriate, present this to Cabinet for approval in due course.

5.      That authority be delegated to the Director of Legal, Democratic and Cultural Services, in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Member for Business Services and Resident Experience to take any action necessary or incidental to the implementation of the above including an Inter Authority Agreement between the partner authorities.

Reasons for Decisions:

Developing a single shared service will benefit residents and contribute to corporate priorities by enabling a reduction in the overall cost of legal services through economies of scale and reducing duplication.  At the same time it will increase resilience and flexibility, allowing the partners to reduce reliance on external suppliers and to develop areas of excellence and expertise.

The creation of an ABS would widen opportunities to generate more external income to further reduce the costs of services to partner councils.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Council Overview Board]

The Leader of the Council introduced the report on Orbis Public Law and explained that this was the creation of a shared legal service between Brighton & Hove City Council, East Sussex County Council, Surrey County Council and West Sussex County Council with effect from 1 April 2016.

He informed Members that the new arrangements would be overseen by a joint committee and that Members would still have control over the arrangements and staff would remain employed by their existing council. He also confirmed that each council would retain its own monitoring officer arrangements.

He said that working in partnership would enable all 4 councils to achieve savings and that this was set out in the business case. He went on to state the officers had also developed a business case for a limited company in order to be able to generate income.

Members confirmed that they were pleased to build on the good work done by the Orbis partnership and that it was a benchmark for the future. 

RESOLVED:

1.      That the creation of a Legal Services partnership arrangement with Brighton & Hove City Council and East and West Sussex County Councils to be known as Orbis Public Law, with effect from 1 April 2016, be approved.

2.      That the establishment of a Joint Committee as the governing body for Orbis Public Law to oversee the discharge of the Council’s Legal Services function be agreed.

3.       That the attached terms of reference for the Joint Committee and the appointment of the Cabinet Member for Business Services and Resident Experience to that Committee be approved.

4.       That officers develop a Business Case for a Limited Company (which would be jointly owned by the four authorities) as the vehicle for an Alternative Business Structure (ABS), in a form approved by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority and if appropriate, present this to Cabinet for approval in due course.

5.      That authority be delegated to the Director of Legal, Democratic and Cultural Services, in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Member for Business Services and Resident Experience to take any action necessary or incidental to the implementation of the above including an Inter Authority Agreement between the partner authorities.

Reasons for Decisions:

Developing a single shared service will benefit residents and contribute to corporate priorities by enabling a reduction in the overall cost of legal services through economies of scale and reducing duplication.  At the same time it will increase resilience and flexibility, allowing the partners to reduce reliance on external suppliers and to develop areas of excellence and expertise.

The creation of an ABS would widen opportunities to generate more external income to further reduce the costs of services to partner councils.