To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 December 2010.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 14 December 2010 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence had been received from Mr R Childerhouse and Mr C Jordan.

Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests that they may have in any of the following items on the agenda.  The Members’ Code of Conduct requires that declarations include the nature of the interest and whether it is a personal or prejudicial interest.

There were none.

To note the names of any non-members wishing to address the meeting.

There were none.

Report by the Senior Business Improvement Officer.

The Head of ICT advised Members that attempts to obtain trial iPads on loan had been unsuccessful, and due to the costs there was a reluctance to spend money on such devices until their viability had been proven.  Therefore, the Business Improvement Team had prepared a Business Case for a number of options for new/replacement ICT equipment.

The Senior Business Improvement Officer then presented the report which looked at six options against set objectives with a breakdown of the costs including hardware, software, training, support, printer and postage costs, but not including depreciation.

The sixth option, which was for an allowance, was based on information provided by Compass Point.  It was noted that this option might have tax implications.

An additional option was the Kindle, which was light, portable and had good battery life.  These were currently being trialled by the Deputy Chief Executive and the Director of Corporate Resources.

With regard to the red traffic light ratings, the Chairman was interested in learning more about the business cases of two other local authorities, known to be trialling iPads.  He asked for information on what Leicester and Warrington were doing and why.  The report needed to contain more supporting information to explain the findings.

The Panel was under pressure to get the right solution to ensure that new Councillors would be able to function from day one.  He suggested that any option that did not meet the basic requirements of a Member should be discounted. 

The Head of ICT noted that one of the main aims was to reduce costs by significantly reducing printing (and that this would require a cultural change in the way of working for Members).

The Chairman acknowledged this but reiterated that the aim was to reduce printing, not to eliminate it totally, bearing in mind that a solution needed to provide ‘as is’ capability (ie would allow annotation of documents when on the train – without wider connectivity).  Members agreed unanimously; although they were aware that highlighting and annotation could be done electronically they were not yet at the point of being able to do without paper copies of agendas.

Members needed to be given the right tools to allow them to do their job efficiently and the Business Case needed to consider both financial and practical aspects. 

The Head of ICT agreed.  The options under consideration gave Members flexibility and allowed choice and given different needs, no one size would fit all although all agreed that a single ‘best fit’ would be preferable.

The various options were considered and the following comments were made:

• iPads – red ratings needed more information to explain the findings, however proposed costs were prohibitive
• Chip PCs – should be discounted because they were not portable and Members needed to be able to work in a variety of locations
• Duo’s – appeared flimsy and might have long term maintenance issues
• Kindles – should be discounted because they did not have a print capability and could not display  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.