Attending meetings
Scrutiny Committee and Standing Panel meetings are held in public and you are welcome to attend.
Meeting dates and start times are on the calendar and a notice advertising each meeting is posted at the front of the Town Hall on St Aldate's, Oxford. The majority of Scrutiny Committee meetings are held in the Town Hall. Scrutiny Standing Panel and Review Group meetings are generally held remotely via Zoom. Most Scrutiny meetings are livestreamed on the our YouTube Channel.
On occasions the meeting will agree to consider an item in private and if this is the case you will be asked to leave. This happens infrequently and within very limited circumstances that you will see on the agenda and listed in the Council’s constitution.
The Scrutiny Committee may commission time-limited review groups that explore a particular topic or issue in detail over a series of meetings (a scrutiny inquiry). Some review groups meet in public and details of these meetings are made available on our website.
Asking questions, making comments or speaking
You can address the Committee or a Standing Panel on any item already on the agenda, with the agreement of the Chair. Agendas are published 5 clear workings days in advance of a meeting. To speak on an agenda item, please email democraticservices@oxford.gov.uk providing as much notice as possible, ideally no later than midday on the day of the meeting. The Chair will decide how long you can speak for (however this will be limited to a maximum of 5 minutes).
You can provide evidence to inform a current scrutiny inquiry either in writing or in person, with the agreement of the Chair, by emailing democraticservices@oxford.gov.uk. Please provide at least 24 hours’ notice and include your name, contact details and the topic of the review you wish to contribute to. You can also look out for ‘calls for evidence’ on our consultation pages.
Details of future agenda items and current and planned scrutiny inquiries are set out in the Scrutiny work programme.
Meeting agenda
All agendas are available on our website.
Upcoming agenda items
The Scrutiny work programme lists the items and topics that are due to come to the Scrutiny Committee and Standing Panels over the coming months, as well as current and planned scrutiny inquiries. See our Scrutiny Work Programme.
You can suggest a topic for inclusion in the Scrutiny work programme by completing and submitting our Work Programme Suggestion Form:
Work Programme Suggestion Form
Please note that the resources available to Scrutiny are limited so not all suggestions can be pursued. We will let you know if your suggestion has been included in the work programme.
Recording meetings
You are able to record meetings using your own equipment. To allow you to do this without disrupting the meeting we have set a filming and recording protocol which we would ask you to read.
