Report To:	Civic Affairs Committee	12 November 2015
Lead Officer:	Monitoring Officer

Review of Council Standing Orders

Purpose

The Chairman of the Council has requested that the Civic Affairs Committee undertakes a review of Council Standing Orders.

This report suggests those areas within Standing Orders that could be reviewed to aid more effective decision-making and governance.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Civic Affairs Committee considers those areas of Standing Orders it would like to review in more detail, or puts forward recommendations to Council to amend specific Standing Orders.

Reasons for Recommendations

It is within the Civic Affairs Committee’s remit to review the Council’s Constitution, including Standing Orders. This recommendation provides the Committee with an opportunity to identify those areas of Standing Orders it would like to review in more detail.

The recommendation above also provides the Committee with an opportunity to propose changes to specific Standing Orders at this stage and make recommendations to Council.

Background

The Standing Orders for Council have not been reviewed in their entirety for a number of years. It is within the remit of the Civic Affairs Committee to review the Constitution and Standing Orders periodically.

Councillor Sue Ellington, upon her election as Chairman of the Council in May 2015, requested a review of Council Standing Orders. This report facilitates that request, by identifying areas those areas that could be reviewed and subsequently amended to assist with more effective decision-making and governance.

Considerations

The Council’s current Standing Orders are attached to this report at Appendix A. Those within Standing Orders suggested for possible review are set out as follows:

Notice of Motions

The only limit on Notices of Motion for consideration at a meeting of Full Council, in terms of the number submitted, is that only one Motion may be submitted per Member per meeting. The Chairman does, however, have discretion to determine the number of Notices of Motion accepted for debate at any one Council meeting.

The Committee could consider introducing a limit on the number of Notices of Motion that will be accepted at a Council meeting.

The Committee could also consider giving the Chairman discretion to refer a Notice of Motion onto another appropriate body or individual, if considered appropriate to do so, without accepting it for debate at Full Council. There is currently no provision to facilitate this within Standing Orders.

In terms of amendments, the Committee could consider recommending the inclusion of a Standing Order to request that all amendments be written down and handed to the Chairman before it is debated, in order that it is clear what Members are debating and voting on.

In addition, a recommendation could be made to give the Chairman discretion to refuse to accept amendments to Motions or recommendations if they are based on typographical or grammatical points. These issues should instead be raised with officers at the earliest opportunity in order that they can be properly considered.

Standing Order 12.4 sets out reasons why the Chairman might reject a motion. The Committee could consider, adding after the words ‘is substantially the same as a Motion which has been put at a meeting or a meeting of the Council in the past six months” the sentence ‘This does not apply to motions moved in pursuance of a recommendation of Cabinet, a Committee or a Chief Officer’.

Considering the Council’s annual budget

Preparing the Council’s budget takes considerable time and is an extremely complex process. The Scrutiny and Overview Committee and Cabinet both consider the proposed budget prior to its submission to Full Council.

Currently, there is nothing within Standing Orders to prevent any significant amendments being proposed at Full Council in relation to the annual budget that will not have had the opportunity to have also been considered by officers, the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or Cabinet. There is a risk that in moving such an amendment without notice, the Section 151 Officer or Monitoring Officer would be unable to accept it having not had time to properly consider the implications and consequences of the amendment amongst the entirety of the very complex budget. If an amendment had been previously considered by the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or Cabinet, officers and Members would have sufficient information to enable them to properly consider the implications and consequences of the significant amendment.

Standing Orders could be amended to reflect that any proposed significant amendments to the Council’s annual budget need to have gone to the Scrutiny and Overview Committee and/or Cabinet before they will be accepted for consideration at Full Council.

The Committee could also consider extending this principle to all motions.

Questions by Members

Members currently have to provide notice of questions, which are published with the agenda for meetings of Full Council. Other authorities set aside a time limit of 30 minutes, for example, where any Member can ask questions without the need to provide notice. This is something the Committee may wish to consider reviewing.

The Committee may also wish to consider extending the deadline for receipt of questions from Members in order that a response to the question could also be included on the agenda for the meeting when it is published.

Cancellation of meetings

The current Standing Orders do not make it clear what the process should be for cancelling meetings. The Committee could consider making a recommendation to amend Standing Orders to reflect the process that should be followed in the event that a meeting would need to be cancelled due to lack of business, severe weather or other exceptional or disruptive circumstances. It is recommended that the process should involve the Chief Executive consulting with the Chairman of Council or the committee/body, then consulting political group leaders before resolving whether to cancel or adjourn the meeting.

Quorum of Scrutiny and Overview Committee and Partnerships Review Committee

The Scrutiny and Overview Procedure Rules set out that the quorum for both the Scrutiny and Overview Committee and Partnerships Review Committee is a least half of the membership of each body. The Committee could consider reducing the quorum for both bodies to one quarter, in line with other quorum requirements.

Options

The Civic Affairs Committee could opt not to review or make recommendations to Council to amend Standing Orders at this time.

The Civic Affairs Committee could identify other areas of Standing Orders for review or amendment not included in this report.

Implications

In the writing of this report, taking into account financial, legal, staffing, risk management, equality and diversity, climate change, community safety and any other key issues, there are no significant implications.

Background Papers

No additional background papers have been used in the preparation of this report.

Report Author:	Graham Watts – Democratic Services Team Leader

Telephone: (01954) 713030