The Monitoring Officer introduced the report which asks for approval to changes to the Constitution to remove some anomalies.

In particular the Monitoring Officer mentioned an anomaly around access to information rules.  Decision making normally requires a report to be on the forward plan for 28 days.  Exemptions allow a report to be added with fewer than 28 days.  If we are unable to give five clear working days, the chair of the Scrutiny and Oversight Commission must approve, but the current wording suggests such approval is required even when we can give more than 5 working days’ notice.

The second relates to motions relating to Community Fora.  Motions currently have to be with Democratic Services by 9am the day before the council meeting, which doesn’t give much time to other councillors to draft and propose amendments.  The recommended change is to set the deadline in line with other motions by the morning 2 clear days before the council meeting.

During hybrid meetings, online participation does not extend to proposing or seconding motions.

In the past it has been practice to allow all councillors to all papers through ModernGov, and it was recommended to restrict papers to only those who need access to them.

Recommendation E is a duplication of Recommendation A

Planning protocol requires further work to bring the changes back to a future meeting.

On Contract Standing Orders, the scheme of delegation states that the approval limit for Directors is set to £2 million, but the contract standing orders state that it is £500,000.  The recommendation is that this £500,000 for Directors and any contract between £500,000 and £2million is for the CEO and as currently any contract over £2million require approval of Cabinet.

In response to questions the Monitoring Officer clarified that the Planning amendments would come back to this Committee if there was time, but could go direct to the Council.  If this Committee wanted changes to come back here, they could do, but it would delay the overall process.

RESOLVED:

-       The Committee authorised that Part 4B Para 18 as described in paragraph 2.5 below and detailed at Appendix A be put before full council

-       The Committee authorised that Rule 2.3h (Community Fora Motions) as described at paragraph 2.8 below be out before full council

-       The Committee authorised that  Part 4A Para 21.5 (Remote Attendance) as described in paragraph 2.11 below and detailed at Appendix B be put before full council

-       The Committee noted that the practice of automatically circulating reports which are legally exempt from publication to all councillors will cease; such circulation was to be restricted to councillors with a statutory right of access to such documents or who could otherwise demonstrate they have a need to know the information contained in such documents.

-       The Committee considered and recommended to Council the financial limit at which directors may agree contract awards and the treatment of contract extension for decision making purposes, details of which are set out in 2.8 to 2.10 below

-       The Committee noted that potential amendments to the Planning Protocol at Part 5 of the Constitution may be required as described at Paragraph 2.2 below be discussed at Planning Applications Committee before being forwarded for consideration at full Council.