Agenda and minutes

A webcast of the meeting can be viewed here.

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 june 2025 were taken as read, confirmed and signed.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations were made.

There were no declarations of the party whip.

A Call-in was received on Monday, 16 June 2025 in relation to the Cabinet decision taken on 12 June 2025 on the Protocol for Flying Flags at County Hall, a copy of which is attached to this agenda.

The decision of the Cabinet on this matter, together with the report which was considered by the Cabinet on 12 June, the previously agreed Protocol for Flying Flags at County Hall and representations received and considered by the Cabinet is attached as follows: -

·        Call-in Notice (Pages 9 – 10)

·        Cabinet Decision (Pages 11 – 12)

·        Cabinet report on Protocol for Flying Flags at County Hall – 12 June 2025 (Pages 13 – 16)

·        Appendix - Protocol for Flying Flags at County Hall (Pages 17 – 22)

·        Comments received by the Cabinet (Pages 23 – 25)

The Commission considered the Call-in of the Cabinet decision taken on 12 June 2025 regarding the Protocol for Flying Flags at County Hall.  A copy of the Call-in Notice, Cabinet decision, Cabinet report on the Protocol for Flying Flags at County Hall, together with the comments submitted to the Cabinet, marked ‘Agenda Item 4’, is filed with these minutes.

In her opening remarks, the Chairman stated that the purpose of the meeting was to consider whether the reasons set out in the Call-in Notice were sufficient to ask the Cabinet to reconsider its decision taken on 12 June 2025.

The Chairman asked the Head of Law and the Council’s Statutory Scrutiny Officer to outline her advice note which had been circulated to all members of the Scrutiny Commission in advance of the meeting and which set out the legal framework for the Call-in and the next steps available.  A copy of the advice note is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman and Vice Chairman reiterated their reasons for calling-in the Cabinet decision as set out in the Call-in Notice. 

The Chairman then invited Victoria Vernon, Co-Chair of the Disabled Workers Group, to speak on behalf of the Council’s Disabled Workers Group, and the LGBTQ+ and BAME Network Chairs and Core Group Members.  Ms Vernon made the following representation:

“I’d like to start by saying thank you to the members in this room for giving the Staff Networks an opportunity to speak in this meeting. The decision on the Council’s flag protocol is something that continues to impact our members and the Council’s workforce; between the statement at Tuesday 12 June’s Cabinet meeting, and now, here, we are thankful that our staff’s voices can be heard.

I want to start by addressing a few perspectives that have since emerged, and by doing so hopefully re-emphasise our position in this discussion and find common ground.

We emphasise community, communication and support in the occasions we would like to mark through our flags and would hope the Council would agree with this position. Our concern about which flags are being flown in the new protocol does not put us in opposition to the Armed Forces Day, Commonwealth Day and Armistice Day flags. In fact, as with any group, we have armed forces personnel in our communities. None of us are separate from each other.

We believe that the flags that represent our staff networks also come under the British values, under respect and tolerance. There are LGBTQ+ people here in the County; disabled people; people of colour. We are all equally proud to be here in Leicestershire too. Please consider the message that has been sent to the Leicestershire people in these groups, by underlining that the new protocol represents British values, and what it means when other flags are not being flown.

Those of us who have a protected characteristic are unfortunately well aware that the law is not always on our side. Laws are hard-earned but can be repealed. But this also does not address the fact that, even though we now have laws designed to protect us, conflict in the workplace still occurs.

According to the CIPD Good Work Index 2022, around one in five workers reporting a disability (17%) encountered conflict in the last 12 months compared with nearer one in twenty (6%) of those reporting no disability. More than double the proportion of gay, lesbian or bisexual workers reported incidence of conflict (15%) compared with heterosexual workers (7%). Meanwhile, one in eight (12%) non-white workers reported incidence of conflict compared with only 7% of white workers. Conflict increases  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

The next meeting of the Commission is scheduled to take place on Monday, 8^th September 2025.

RESOLVED:

It was noted that the next meeting of the Commission would be held on Monday, 8 September 2025 at 10.00am.