Governance of SWestrans
The South West of Scotland Transport Partnership is governed by a Board consisting of seven members. Five of these are local councillors nominated by Dumfries and Galloway Council. The other two are referred to as ‘external members’.
One member each is nominated by Dumfries and Galloway NHS Board and Scottish Enterprise. The appointment of all Board Members is subject to the approval of Scottish Ministers.
Find out who are Board members are
Role of observers
The terms of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005 provide for the appointment of: “one or more observers, that is to say, persons who may… participate in proceedings of the Partnership but who may not hold office in it or participate in its decisions.”
Scottish Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 622, The Regional Transport Partnerships (Establishment, Constitution and Membership) (Scotland) Order 2005 states that: “Each of the Partnerships and the Scottish Ministers may appoint such number of observers as they consider appropriate to the Partnership.”
The Act makes provision for the appointment of observers. That suggests a passive role but RTPs should consider appointing individuals who, as advisers, can make a valuable contribution. The provision enables a small RTP with a limited number of other members to provide additional seats at the table and allows a means for RTPs to bring to its discussions people with a useful input to make but who were not appointed as other members (an example might be transport operators where the risk of conflicts of interest may be high if the RTP has operational responsibilities for public transport).
The term “adviser” seems a more accurate representation of this more active role and therefore, for their day-to-day business RTPs may prefer to use the term adviser in preference to the legal term observer, and the remainder of this guidance observes that principle.
There is a clear difference in legal and formal status between board members and observers. Observers do not carry any responsibility and are likely to be drawn from either specific interest groups or to bring a particular knowledge or expertise. They may therefore not be expected to participate in all discussions or all meetings, only those for which their particular knowledge or interest is relevant. It is for the RTP to specify in Standing Orders the roles and rights of advisers at Board meetings.
How observers are appointed
An RTP can choose not to appoint any observers at all.
The Scottish Ministers can also appoint observers but this is intended to be used sparingly, if at all, and most likely only if it is felt strongly by Ministers that a particular view should be heard by the RTP and that this cannot be facilitated in any other way.
Scottish Ministers appoint an observer to SWestrans to provide liaison with the Scottish government.