3 Elected Member Request report
North Ayrshire Council · 27 August 2026
Back to Audit and Scrutiny Committee — 27 August 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC INFORMATION NORTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL 27 August 2026 Audit and Scrutiny Committee Title: 2025/26 Elected Member Requests Report Purpose: To inform the Audit and Scrutiny Committee of the Council's performance relating to Elected Member requests handled in Financial Year 2025/26. Recommendation: That the Committee notes the report and the information provided. 1. Executive Summary 1.1 This report details Elected Member requests information covering the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 (referred to in the report as 2025/26). 2. Background 2.1 This section contains information and commentary on Elected Member requests handled by the Council during Financial Year 2025/26. Volume of Elected Member requests actioned during the year (including MP/MSP) Volume of requests actioned during year 3,107 Councillor requests can be handled by Services under two stages: Stage One – non-complex requests with a timescale to action of 5 working days Stage Two – complex requests with a timescale to action of 20 working days
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PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC INFORMATION 2.2 The table below details all Councillor requests actioned during the year: 2025/26 Total Actioned 2,101 Stage One requests actioned 2,096 Stage One requests actioned on time 1,764 % Stage One requests actioned on time 84% Stage Two requests actioned 5 Stage Two requests actioned on time 5 % Stage Two requests actioned on time 100% Total % of requests actioned on time 84% 2.3 The table below shows a comparison of the volume of Councillor requests received and actioned over the last three years: Councillor Requests 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Total Actioned 2,307 2,287 2,101 Stage One requests actioned 2,305 2,284 2,096 Stage One requests actioned on time 2,003 2,010 1,764 % Stage One requests actioned on time 87% 88% 84% Stage Two requests actioned 2 3 5 Stage Two requests actioned on time 2 3 5 % Stage Two requests actioned on time 100% 100% 100% Total % of requests actioned on time 87% 88% 84%
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PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC INFORMATION 2.4 Volume of requests per Directorate 2.4.1 Councillor Stage One requests (5 working day timescale to action) Directorate Department No. of requests actioned No. actioned on time % actioned on time Average no. of days to resolve Stage Ones Target (days) Corporate Services Chief Executive Service 1 1 100% 4 5 Committee Services 2 2 100% 2 5 Customer Services 24 17 71% 6.8 5 Finance 4 4 100% 1 5 Legal Services 9 8 89% 3.1 5 Communities & Housing Community Facilities 4 4 100% 3.2 5 Community Learning & Dev. 7 5 71% 5.6 5 Sports & Activity 11 8 73% 5.5 5 Building Services 79 67 85% 3.5 5 Housing 417 376 90% 3.9 5 Planning 24 22 92% 2.1 5 Protective Services 28 24 86% 3.3 5 Education Education 51 50 98% 2.3 5 Facilities Management 10 7 70% 4.3 5 Place Roads 543 500 92% 2.9 5 Streetscene 323 263 81% 3.5 5 Waste 224 202 90% 2.8 5 Regeneration 15 10 67% 6 5 Energy/Sustainability 2 2 100% 3 5 Property Mgmt & Investment 145 119 82% 4.2 5 Transport 2 2 100% 2 5 Health & Social Care Partnership Children, Families & Justice 6 3 50% 11.8 5 Finance & Transformation 3 3 100% 4 5 Health & Community Care 135 51 38% 8.8 5 Mental Health 19 9 47% 8.4 5 Other (Money Matters etc) 8 5 63% 4.4 5 2,096 1,764 84% 3.8 5 2.4.2 Councillor Stage Two requests (20 working day timescale to action) Directorate Department No. of requests actioned No. actioned on time % actioned on time Average no. of days to resolve Stage Ones Target (days) Communities & Housing Building Services 2 2 100% 3 20 Planning 1 1 100% 7 20 Community Facilities 1 1 100% 15 20 Property Mgmt & Investment 1 1 100% 3 20 5 5 100% 6.2 20
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PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC INFORMATION 2.5 MP/MSP requests 2.5.1 MP and MSP requests have a set timescale of 10 working days to action and the table below details the requests actioned during the period: 2025/26 Requests actioned 1,006 Requests actioned on time 798 % of requests actioned on time 79% 2.6 Elected Member requests analysis 2.6.1 There was an 8% decrease in Councillor requests compared to the previous year. 2.6.2 Whilst there was a 5% decrease in MP and MSP requests being closed on time, there was an uplift of 41% in requests received during the year. 2.6.3 Elected Member requests that did not meet timescale was due to multiple factors, including: • administrative errors • employee/officer availability for reviewing/approving responses prior to issue • reduced resources, causing delays investigating requests • further information required to respond to requests (including from third parties) • operational pressures • in July 2025 the Council replaced EMPro (previously Lagan) with a new CRM system. During Implementation there were some preliminary issues that caused some delays in requests being actioned. 2.7 Recording Councillor requests 2.7.1 The table below shows how Councillor requests were logged throughout the year: Volume % Volume of Councillor requests recorded 2,101 Volume logged by Councillors 1,116 53% Volume logged via other channels (Member Services, the Services directly, the Contact Centre etc.) 985 47% 2.7.2 Of the 2,101 requests logged by Councillors during the period, 16 Councillors used their NAC online Member accounts to log requests themselves.
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PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC INFORMATION 2.8 Follow up actions for Councillor requests 2.8.1 At a previous Audit and Scrutiny Committee it was noted that that some Councillor requests that required follow up actions were being closed with no further updates being provided, causing difficulties for Councillors relaying closure information to constituents. 2.8.2 To address this, additional questions were added to the Elected Member request form (from 1 October 2024) allowing services to record if a request had outstanding/follow up actions, what these were and when they would be completed by. 2.8.3 The number of Councillor requests in 2025/26 that had follow up actions was 55. 17 of these were scheduled to be completed in the 2026/27 financial year and the remaining 38 were all completed in the 2025/26 financial year. 3. Proposals 3.1 It is proposed the Committee approves the report and recognises the Council’s performance in handling Elected Member requests in relation to Section 2 above. 4. Implications/Socio-economic Duty Financial 4.1 None. Human Resources 4.2 None. Legal 4.3 None. Equality/Socio-economic 4.4 None. Climate Change and Carbon 4.5 None. Key Priorities 4.6 None. Community Wealth Building 4.7 None. Islands Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) 4.8 None.
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PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC INFORMATION United Nations Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 4.9 None. Consumer Duty 4.10 None. 5. Consultation 5.1 None. Aileen Craig Head of Service for Democratic Services For further information please contact Darren Miller, Complaint Manager, on (01294) 322988. Background Papers None