Agenda item

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to recommend to Council to approve:

(a)      The changes to the presentation of the Constitution on the Council’s website referred to in paragraphs 3 to 7 of the report

(b)      The video and diagram referred to in paragraphs 8 to 10 of the report for inclusion on the Council’s website

(c)      The proposals for the incorporation of all of the current Articles into the main body of the Constitution referred to in paragraphs 11 to 13 of the report

(d)      The proposals for amendment to the Protocol on Members’ Rights and Responsibilities, the Protocol on Member/Officer Relations, the Council Procedure Rules and the Contract Procedure Rules in the Constitution referred to in paragraphs 14 to 22 of the report; and

(e)      A delegation  to the Director of Law and Governance to make textual amendments to the Constitution to address any inconsistencies or correct any cross-referencing errors arising from or as a consequence of the amendments, along with updating job and group titles if those referred to in the Constitution are obsolete (insofar as the Director of Law and Governance does not already have such a delegation)

The Committee is also recommended:

(f)       To note that the Code of Conduct adopted by Council on 5 April 2022 and the Current Scheme of Allowances referred to in paragraphs 23 to 24 below will be incorporated into the Constitution.

The Committee considered a report with a number of proposed recommendations to Council for amending the Council’s Constitution and its presentation.  An addenda was also received which proposed a new Part 2 to the Constitution relating to the Fire and Rescue Service.

The report was presented by Ms Bradley.  She stated that this was the culmination of a significant piece of work which had been undertaken with Members and officers, including nine meetings of the Cross Party Constitution Working Group.  She confirmed that the recommendations were to Council as this was the body required to approve any changes to the Constitution.

Ms Bradley explained that Members of the Working Group had been keen to update the look, content and structure of the Constitution.  This had included removing the articles from the beginning of the document in order to prevent repetition. She added that she was seeking delegation from the Committee to herself to have the ability to make textual amendments in case there were any inconsistencies or cross-referencing errors in the revised document.

Other changes included that there was a video and diagram setting out how the Council operates.

Ms Bradley and Rob MacDougall, Chief Fire Officer, also advised that there had been a long standing request to ensure that the Council had reference to the Channel Panel, which the Chief Fire Officer has responsibility for, in the Constitution and it had been decided to add the Fire and Rescue Service into the new Part 2 section of the Constitution.

In the subsequent discussion, the following points were raised:

a)    Members of the Committee confirmed they were content to recommend to Council the proposed new Part 2 of the Constitution relating to the Fire and Rescue Service.

b)    It was noted that some of the committee memberships listed in the Constitution were out of date following the changes in May.  Ms Bradley informed the Committee that there was a plan to add links from Modern.Gov, used by Democratic Services, to the Constitution.  This would enable the committees’ membership to be updated electronically without having to manually update the Constitution document.

c)     It was requested that further changes were made to the Constitution in relation to Section 17 Voting.  This was due to Members’ votes not being recorded on the Council’s websites as stipulated in Section 17.2; it not being clear how the seven Members requested a recorded vote in Section 17.4 and a query whether Section 17.6 was needed for a Member to request a recorded vote given this was already referred to in Section 17.2. 

It was noted that the Constitution Working Group had been keen to bring proposals to Council in September as it had not been reviewed in a number of years.  There would be a further opportunity to review Section 17 of the Constitution.

d)    It was confirmed that the work to fully integrate the relevant Constitution documents into the website was being carried out internally and would not have cost implications.  Most of this work had already been undertaken.

e)    A concern was expressed that the Working Group had agreed that clause 13.5 of the Council Procedure Rules should be amended to require that amendments to Motions on Notice should be submitted by 9am at least two working days before the relevant Council meeting (the current Rules allowed them to be submitted one working day before).  The concern was that Members would no longer have weekends to consider submitting amendments to Motions on Notice.   It was stated in response that the Monitoring Officer was currently given a deadline on Monday morning which did not give the Groups proper oversight of the amendments being received or the necessary time to consider them.  It would also give the Monitoring Officer time to give proper advice to the Groups.  Whilst Members might lose a weekend in considering an amendment they wished to make, they would gain a weekend in considering amendments others had made.

f)      Councillor Middleton expressed concerns that he did not believe Members had had sufficient time to endorse the changes suggested by the Working Group in order that they could then be considered by Council.  He was also of the view that more of the meeting could have been devoted to this item to examine the proposed changes to the Constitution in more detail.  He was also seeking that there was an electronic version with track changes.

It was noted that Members of the Working Group had been asked to report back to the Groups to go through with Members what had been happening at the Working Group meetings.  There had been a delegation from the Committee to the Working Group to update the Constitution. There had also been an executive summary setting out the changes that had been made.  The only changes of substance were to the Contract Procedure Rules whilst other changes were editing or avoiding repetition.  There was the option to comment on any amendments at the September Council meeting.  It was the long term plan for the Constitution to become an electronic document.

g)    The Committee wished to record its thanks to the Working Group Members and officers.

RESOLVED: That the Committee RECOMMENDED to Council to APPROVE:

(a)  The changes to the presentation of the Constitution on the Council’s website referred to in paragraphs 3 to 7 of the report

(b)  The video and diagram referred to in paragraphs 8 to 10 of the report for inclusion on the Council’s website

(c)   The proposals for the incorporation of all of the current Articles into the main body of the Constitution referred to in paragraphs 11 to 13 of the report

(d)  The proposals for amendment to the Protocol on Members’ Rights and Responsibilities, the Protocol on Member/Officer Relations, the Council Procedure Rules and the Contract Procedure Rules in the Constitution referred to in paragraphs 14 to 22 of the report

(e)  The proposed new Part 2 of the Constitution relating to the Fire and Rescue Service referred to in paragraphs 25 to 27 of this report; and,

(f)    A delegation to the Director of Law and Governance to make textual amendments to the Constitution to address any inconsistencies or correct any cross-referencing errors arising from or as a consequence of the amendments, along with updating job and group titles if those referred to in the Constitution are obsolete (insofar as the Director of Law and Governance does not already have such a delegation)

That (g) the Committee NOTED that the Code of Conduct adopted by Council on 5 April 2022 and the Current Scheme of Allowances referred to in paragraphs 23 to 24 below will be incorporated into the Constitution.

Councillor Ian Middleton requested that his abstention from the above decision (a to f) was recorded.