The Monitoring Officer introduced the report setting out a number of proposed changes to the constitution. Most of these had been agreed by the member working group however there were three matters upon which the Committee was being asked to make decisions as to what should be recommended to full Council.

a)    Timing of motions on the strategic theme currently have to be submitted at 9am on the day before the meeting. The proposal is that suggested that motions should be submitted three clear working days before. (2.5.3, Page 44). In order to support this, there was a suggestion that the strategic theme report should circulated in advance of the agenda.
 

b)    Should strategic theme choices be made on a turn by turn basis or should the choice of theme be proportionate to the size of the group making the choice ?

c)    If councillor questions not on the strategic theme are , as is proposed, to be submitted seven clear working days before the meeting, should the answers also be circulated earlier than is currently the case?

The Chair thanked the members for their participation in the process. 

RESOLVED:

A. That the Committee recommended to Full Council that it adopt the following amended parts of the Constitution attached as appendices A-H to this report*:

(i) Part 1 – Summary and explanation

(ii) Part 2 – Articles

(iii) Part 3A – Responsibility for Local Choice Functions

(iv) Part 3B – Responsibility for Non-Executive Council Functions

(v) Part 4A- Council Procedure Rules

(vi) Part 4B -Access to Information Procedure Rules

(vii) Part 4C – Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules

(viii) Part 4E – Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules

*Tracked changes versions of the appendices are available from Democracy

Services on request. A table setting out the substantive proposed changes is

attached as appendix I

B. That the Committee recommended to Full Council that it adopts the Scheme of Delegation to Officers attached as appendix J to this report insofar as it relates to non-executive functions and to agree it will form Part 3E and replace existing parts 3E, 3F and 7B of the constitution;

C. That the Committee noted that the Cabinet has been recommended to adopt amended versions of

Part 3c (Responsibility for Executive Functions), Part 4D (Cabinet Procedure

Rules) and the Scheme of Delegation to Officers insofar as it relates to executive functions which if agreed, will also be submitted to Full Council for the sake of completeness; and

D. That the Committee authorised the Monitoring Officer to make such consequential and minor drafting amendments as she considers reasonably necessary including, without limitation,

to renumber the parts of the constitution as appropriate.