Overview and scrutiny

There is a duty for all English and Welsh councils to provide a scrutiny function under Local Government Act (2000) and Localism Act (2011) where there is an elected Executive Mayor and Cabinet Structure. Whilst scrutiny is not a decision-making body, it does have the authority to act as a ‘critical friend’ and provide a robust checks and balance function.

In 2019, the UK Government published and set out statutory guidance for overview and scrutiny function due to its importance to the successful functioning of local democracy.

To fulfil and support its role, councillors and co-optees on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee can and will:

• Hold the executive to account through scrutinising the council’s performance and key decisions affecting residents and the wider community
• Monitor Cabinet decisions to ensure they are robust and good value for money, particularly through budget scrutiny
• Work together as an independent group to raise issues, pre-decision scrutiny questions and consider decisions that are call-ins
• Request elected Mayor and Cabinet Member to attend the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and explain their decisions, council plans and performance
• Request the executive to submit a report to Full Council if it feels that a key decision has been taken without being published in advance.

Data controller and purpose

The information you provide will be used by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ Corporate Strategy and Policy Service, to process your suggestions for Overview and Scrutiny to review.

We have received your personal data from you and will use this for informing the scrutiny work programme.

We process your data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and if you have any concerns the council’s data protection officer can be contacted on DPO@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

Condition for processing personal data

It is necessary for us to process your personal data (name, address, contact details), under the GDPR with consent. A delay in you providing the information requested may result in a delay in providing appropriate services.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only hold your information for as long as is required by law and to provide you with the necessary services. This is likely to be for 12 months after the case is closed. For further details, you can view our retention schedule.

We may also anonymise some personal data you provide to us to ensure that you cannot be identified and use this for statistical analysis of data to allow the Council to effectively target and plan the provision of services.

Information sharing

The council has a duty to protect public funds and may use personal information and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. Information may be shared with internal services and external bodies like the Audit Commission, Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Police. This activity is carried out under social protection law.

We have a duty to improve the health of the population we serve. To help with this, we use data and information from a range of sources including hospitals to understand more about the nature and causes of disease and ill-health in the area. This data would normally be anonymised and never used to make decisions on a specific individual or family.

Your rights

You can find out more about your rights on our data protection page and this includes details of your rights about automated decisions, such as the ranking of housing applications, and how to complain to the Information Commissioner.