Contact: Jeff Pattison, ext 7321

1 Summary

1.1 At a members' seminar on Monday 25 March 2002, a range of suggestions were put forward which it was considered might improve operation of the County Council's Constitution. Some of these suggested changes would require formal amendment to the Constitution, whereas others could be implemented administratively. For completeness this report considers all such suggestions, gives a response and suggests the process necessary to implement them.

2 Background

2.1 From the earliest days of the operation of the new Constitution it was accepted by the Leader and the Executive that fine tuning of the arrangements would be likely to be necessary as the operation of the Constitution developed. It had therefore been agreed that after about six months of the operation of the new style of governance, a seminar would be held to which would be invited all members of the County Council with the aim of identifying how future arrangements for the operation of the Constitution might be improved. The intention was therefore to have a fully inclusive member seminar at which everyone's experiences could be shared with a view to resolving any problems that might have occurred with regard to the operation of the Constitution and thereby improving the system.

2.2 The seminar took place on Monday 25 March. 45 County Councillors attended. The seminar was introduced by the Leader of the Council. He was followed by

· Lyn Miller - a consultant engaged to conduct a telephone survey with members on their experiences of the operation of the new style of governance and their views and suggestions on how the system might be improved.

· Janet Skiba - reporting on members' views on the Constitution, obtained from earlier member training workshops.

· Jeff Pattison - on the current constitutional arrangements for the operation of the Executive and Policy Review Committees.

2.3 A full and wide ranging discussion took place and many suggestions were made on how the current system could be improved. Some of the suggestions, if implemented, would require amendments to the Constitution, whereas others could, if agreed, be achieved by administrative action without the need to change the Constitution.

3 County Council meetings to start at 10.00 a.m. rather than 11.00 a.m.

3.1 The Council's Standing Orders required all County Council meetings to commence at 11.00 a.m. The suggestion to start at 10.00 a.m. required a change to Rules of Procedure in the Constitution (Standing Order 4.1). This was dealt with by the County Council at its meeting on 28 March 2002.

4 There should be defined lunch and, where appropriate, tea adjournments.

4.1 There are no provisions in the current Constitution that County Council meetings should adjourn at specific times or for specific periods so that refreshments can be taken. This could be provided for by additions made to the existing Standing Orders. However, members might consider this to be too inflexible in the context of the County Council operating as a debating forum.

4.2 It might be preferable for the Chairman simply as now, informally, depending on the position reached on the Council agenda, to indicate that lunch will be taken between, say, 12.30 p.m. and 1.00 p.m. and, at that time, state when the meeting would reconvene bearing in mind that afternoon meetings normally commence between 2.00 p.m. and 2.30 p.m.

5. Question time for Executive Members at Policy Review Committees

5.1 The issue raised here was whether or not members of Policy Review

Committees should be given the same explicit right to ask questions of the appropriate Executive Member as is afforded to all members of the Council at full Council meetings by virtue of Council Standing Order 20. Such a procedure would allow members of the Policy Review Committee to ask any general questions concerning the role and responsibilities of the Executive Member, of which appropriate written notice is given, and to ask any specific questions of the Executive Member on reports either coming before the Policy Review Committee itself or the Executive Member.

5.2 Given Executive Members' preparedness to attend Policy Review Committee meetings it would appear unnecessary to adopt a formal procedural arrangement in relation to questions. This is mirrored in the informal arrangements at Cabinet or Executive Member decision making where members can attend and ask questions having given notice of their intention to do so. A weeks notice of any question is suggested should this approach to mirror Standing Order 20 arrangements be agreed, i.e. that questions are put in writing to the Chief Executive by noon 7 days before the meeting.

6. Calendar of meetings of Policy Review Committees

6.1 The general view of members was that meetings of Policy Review

Committees should be organised to take place very shortly before decision

days of the relevant Executive Member. The intention is to facilitate, without

unnecessary duplication of work on the part of officers, an opportunity for the Policy Review Committee to comment upon forthcoming decisions to be made by the Executive Member in sufficient time for those comments to be taken into account by the Executive Member.

6.2 In the light of experience so far, the Executive Members for Education and

Recreation and Heritage anticipate having 7 and 5 decision days a year in

normal circumstances. The Leader and Executive Members for Environment

and Social Care consider that monthly meetings are required to enable them

to operate most effectively and efficiently. As with the former committee

structure, the pattern of meetings will not be consistent across the board but

will reflect individual requirements.

6.3 The Policy Review Committees will develop their own programmes of work in addition to their scrutiny and policy development roles. Experience so far has shown that the Policy Review Committees wish to take a strong interest in Forward Plan items, key decisions being the most significant decisions to be made by the Executive. The Policy and Resources and Environment Policy Review Committees receive reports at each meeting about the Forward Plan and the items in it concerning their programme areas. Given that the Policy Review Committees will be identifying items in the Forward Plan up to 4 months in advance, it should be possible to develop a more effective relationship between Executive Member decision days and Policy Review Committees.

6.4 It is suggested that the scheduled Policy Review Committees take place about

one week before the respective Executive Member decision days so that the views of the Policy Review Committee can be taken into account by the Executive Member prior to making a key decision. If this happens, it would assume that a matter considered by the PRC in advance would not subsequently be called-in other than in very exceptional circumstances otherwise the object of the arrangement would be defeated.

6.5 At the members' seminar advice was repeated from the DTLR guidance that "it would clearly be detrimental to efficient decision making if every individual decision were as a matter of course called before such Committees [PRCs] and, therefore this should not happen".

6.6 There would undoubtedly be resource implications across the board if Policy Review Committees were to have an equivalent number of meetings as the individual Executive Members or call-in became other than an exceptional event.

6.7 Taking all these issues into account it is suggested that the Executive Member for Education, the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage and the respective Policy Review Committee arrangements need little fine tuning. In relation to the Leader and the Executive Members for Environment and Social Care and the respective PRCs, it is suggested that the number of scheduled meetings remains the same but with Forward Plan and PRC business planned wherever possible in that context so that PRC meetings take place shortly before the Executive Member's decision day. The Calendar of Meetings would need some revision and where the PRC and Forward Plan timetable do not coincide, the chairman of the PRC may wish to convene an additional meeting if considered necessary. The revised dates would be published as soon as possible.

7. Minority Group Chairman of Policy Review Committees

7.1 The suggestion was made that some of the Policy Review Committees could be chaired by members from the minority parties. Although this is possible within the ambit of the Local Government Act 2000, it must be borne in mind that the Policy Review Committee itself must adhere to the principle of political proportionality. The question as to whether or not there should be minority party members chairing Policy Review Committees is one for the County Council to determine - see Item 7 on this agenda.

8. Executive Member to attend every Policy Review Committee

8.1 Every Policy Review Committee has, by virtue of Section 21(13) of the Local Government Act 2000, existing powers to require members of the Executive to attend before it to answer questions. This power is also contained in the Constitution at Part 3: D paragraph 1.13. There is therefore no need to amend the Constitution.

9. Review the start times of Policy Review Committee Meetings

9.1 It was suggested that in order to make better use of members' time, meetings of the Policy Review Committee could start earlier. There were suggestions that meetings could start at 9.00 a.m., although after some discussion a compromise start time of 9.30 a.m. was suggested. The start time of Policy Review Committees is one in the discretion of the Chairman of the relevant committee and therefore this suggestion could be followed by the appropriate Chairman, no doubt after taking soundings from members of the committee itself.

10. Agenda items suggested for the Policy Review Committee by backbenchers and the party group spokespersons

10.1 There is already a provision within the Constitution at Part 3: D paragraph 1.9 which entitles any member of a Policy Review Committee to give notice that they wish an item relevant to the functions of the Committee to be included on the agenda for the next available meeting. At the seminar it was suggested that the procedure to be followed would be that an issue raised by the member would be incorporated on the agenda as a line item. The Policy Review Committee would then consider at its meeting whether or not it wished a full report from officers on the issue raised by the member. If this was agreed to, the intention would be that a full report would then be presented to a future meeting of the Policy Review Committee. As the provision already exists there would be no need to amend the existing Constitution and it is considered that this entitlement should be the same for backbench members of the Committee and party group spokespersons.

11. Policy Review Committee work organisation issues

11.1 It was suggested that, for some issues, Policy Review Committees could establish "task and finish groups" with the involvement of other members of the County Council who are not represented on the relevant Policy Review Committee, so as to ensure that the best spread of experience is available to inform the particular issue being discussed. There are several options available whereby this can be achieved.

11.2 It is perfectly feasible for a Policy Review Committee to set up small groups for defined purposes or periods from among its members and to invite other persons, including members, to attend meetings to give advice and the benefit of their experience, but without them being, formally, a member of the group or having voting rights. This is a specific power contained within the Local Government Act 2000 Section 21. Additionally, the Policy Review Committee could also invite other persons to be co-opted, although without voting rights again for a particular purpose or specified period e.g. the duration of a particular review.

11.3 To establish a new panel comprising members from other Policy Review Committees whose experience is considered necessary to effectively fulfil the task allocated to it, however, would require the consent of the Council and necessary changes to the Constitution.

11.4 It was also suggested that, in order to ensure best practice, Policy Review Committees should share ideas which were coming forward and being developed. Again, this is not a matter for amending the Constitution, but an organisational issue for all Policy Review Committees and their members. It is suggested that this is already happening and that as most members are represented on at least two Policy Review Committees, they can collectively ensure that what works well with one Policy Review Committee could be shared and adopted with another.

11.5 The extra demands created by the establishment of additional member groups would have resource implications both centrally and departmentally. The new Constitutional arrangements have resulted in meetings support overall continuing at previous levels without yet taking into account the implications of health scrutiny and other initiatives where the Council anticipates ongoing member involvement. The appointment of "task and finish groups", therefore, would need careful consideration.

12. Information streams

12.1 A number of issues were considered and suggestions made for improving the information being made available to members. Suggestions included a more informative précis agenda so that members could identify more clearly whether or not they needed to see the more detailed report, and reviewing the HANSTSWEB agenda, minutes and reports system with a view to them being more helpful to members, particularly in terms of speed of incorporation on the website. Members reiterated strongly that chief officers must ensure that appropriate consultation takes place with local members before an Executive Member makes a decision on issues affecting their division.

12.2 All these issues will be dealt with administratively. For example, with IT developments priority will be given to despatching précis agendas to members electronically to speed up this helpful and effective early warning system. Items which are not self-explanatory will be expanded on the agenda as far as practicable given the intention that it is possible for reports to appear on the website earlier than has been the case at times previously. Areas for improvement are being targeted and the support of all Chief Officers will be paramount.

13. Minority Party membership of the Cabinet

13.1 Under the Constitution the appointment of members to the Executive is at the discretion of the Leader - Part 1: Chapter 7 paragraph 7.2. This suggestion would not therefore require a change to the Constitution. However, some discussion did take place on whether or not, if any minority party member was appointed to the Executive, collective responsibility should continue to apply. The Constitution at Part 2: Chapter 1 paragraph 3.2 clearly indicates that collective responsibility does apply to all members of the Executive. Therefore, should a decision be taken to appoint a minority party member to the Executive, the Constitution would require to be amended if it was decided that collective responsibility should not apply to that minority party member

14. Presentation of Honorary Alderman Certificates to be other than at County Council meetings

14.1 Although the County Council, by virtue of Section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972, must confer the title of Honorary Alderman at a Council meeting at which not less than two-thirds of the members voting must be in agreement to, there is no requirement for the presentation of certificates to those Honorary Aldermen appointed to be made at a County Council meeting.

15. Conclusion

15.1 This report identifies the suggestions made at the members seminar on
25 March 2002 regarding possible changes to the current operation of the Leader and Cabinet style of local governance and invites members' views as to the way forward.

Recommendation

That the Council respond to the issues identified in the report arising from the review of the operation of the Constitution; that the Constitution be revised as necessary in the light of members' comments, and that those issues which can be addressed administratively be actioned accordingly.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

N.B. The list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents that disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

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