Agenda item

The Chairman of the Governance and Audit Committee presented the report which had been considered by his Committee at their meeting on 17 April 2018.

The Council was required by law to prepare and keep up to date a Constitution which explains how the Council operated, how decisions were made and the procedures which were to be followed to ensure that these were efficient, transparent and accountable to local people.  Article 14 of the Constitution stipulated how such a review should be conducted and this was set out at Section 1.2 of the report.

Arising from the feedback received a number of additions/ amendments were proposed to come into immediate effect, following Annual Council.  These were as set out in the table in Section. 2.  Those highlighted green supported the Council’s commercial agenda whilst those highlighted red were deemed to be greater than “house-keeping” in nature.

Building on the successful introduction of a new Code of Conduct in May 2017, particular focus had also be given this year to ensuring the Operation of Conventions included within Section III of the Constitution was reflective of how Members and Officers engage across the Council.

Two workshops, open to Senior Officers and All Members of the Council were held in January 2018, and allowed attendees to take a focussed look at this Section of the Constitution.

A summary of proposed amendments arising from the comments made at the workshops were set out at Appendix 1.  The arising amended document, for adoption, was attached at Appendix 1(a).

It was noted that the most frequently raised point by Attendees at the work shop was that the contents of the Protocol were not widely known of and therefore work had been undertaken to raise its profile and it was proposed this awareness raising continued through SLT.

Following work between the Governance and Audit and Prosperous Communities Committees a proposed role description for Member Champions had been developed.  This was recommended for inclusion within the appendices of the Constitution.

The Governance and Audit Committee were delegated to make any changes to the Financial and Contract Procedure Rules between Annual Councils.  A set of revised rules were attached at Appendices 3 a and 3b.  Appendix 3 detailed the table of amendments which have been made to each document along with the rationale for each and Members attention was particularly drawn to those amendments which had been made to reflect the Council’s commercial agenda, highlighted in green.

These set of revised rules were presented to and approved by the Governance and Audit Committee at its Meeting on 17 April and these were presented to Council for Members attention.

The Chairman of the Governance and Audit Committee recommended the report’s content to Full Council and moved the paper.

Councillor Young advised that the meeting the Constitution did not currently permit questions and motions at the Annual Council Meeting.  He was of the view that this had been the case historically and requested that this position be re-instated.

The request was seconded but before being put to the vote the Chairman of the Governance and Audit Committee advised that he considered such an amendment would be deemed housekeeping in nature and therefore he undertook to review this and amend as appropriate.

Councillor Young indicated he was happy with the approach suggested.

RESOLVED that

(a)     the outcome of the annual review be noted;

(b)     the amendments detailed at Section 2 of the report be approved for immediate adoption and implementation;

(c)     the revised Member Officer Protocol (formally known as the Operation of Conventions) (Part III – Codes and Protocols) – attached at Appendix 1a  be approved for immediate adoption and implementation, and the Monitoring Officer be requested to promote its content at meetings of the Service Leadership Team (SLT);

(d)     the Member Champion Role Description – attached at Appendix 2 be approved for inclusion within the Appendices of the Constitution;

(e)     the amendments made to the Financial and Contract Procedure Rules – attached at Appendix 3a and 3b, as approved by the Governance and Audit Committee at its meeting on 17 April 2018 be noted;

(f)      the amendments detailed at Appendix 4, 4a, and 4b of the report, already approved by Council/Committee, throughout the year be noted; and

(g)     the further planned work detailed at Section 4 of the report be noted.