Agenda item

Report by Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer

 

The Audit and Governance Committee is RECOMMENDED to recommend to Council

 

(a)            to approve amendments listed in Annex 1 to the following Parts of the Council’s Constitution:

 

(i)              Part 1.2 How Oxfordshire County Council Operates;

(ii)             Part 1.3 Decision Making;

(iii)           Part 3.1 Council Procedure Rules;

(iv)           Part 3.1A Virtual Meeting Procedure Rules (delete);

(v)            Part 3.3 Virement Rules;

(vi)           Part 4.2 Cabinet Procedure Rules;

(vii)         Part 4.4 Delegated Decisions by Individual Cabinet Members;

(viii)        Part 4.6 Transport Advisory Panel (delete);

(ix)           Part 5.1A Regulatory and Other Committees;

(x)            Part 5.1B Health and Wellbeing Board;

(xi)           Part 6.1A Overview and Scrutiny Committees;

(xii)         Part 6.1B Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee;

(xiii)        Part 6.1C Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire West Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee Terms of Reference (new Part);

(xiv)       Part 6.2 Overview and Scrutiny Committee Procedure Rules;

(xv)         Part 6.3 Protocol on Scrutiny Participation (delete);

(xvi)       Part 7.2 Scheme of Delegation to Officers;

(xvii)      Part 8.3 Contract Procedure Rules;

(xviii)    Part 9.2 Protocol on Councillors’ Rights and Responsibilities;

(xix)       Part 9.4 Policy on IT Use by Members of the County Council (delete);

(xx)         Part 9.6 Protocol on Member-Officer Relations;

(xxi)       Part 10.1 Members’ Allowances;

(xxii)      correct erroneous references and update titles where they have changed;

 

(b)            to delegate to the Director of Law & Governance and Monitoring Officer the ability to make any necessary additional changes to the Constitution to amend any inconsistencies arising from these proposed changes and where any existing drafting in the Constitution is inconsistent with the changes set out in this report and approved by Council.

 

(c)            to delegate to the Director of Law & Governance and Monitoring Officer the ability to update Part 10.1 Members’ Allowances annually in line with any requirement under the Scheme of Allowances to apply indexation to Members’ Allowances.

 

The Chair introduced the item advising the Committee that the changes were for approval or not. All changes had been discussed in detail at the Working Group where there had been a good representation.

 

The Monitoring Officer highlighted that some of the changes and informed the Committee of the process undertaken to reach the changes suggested in the report.

 

The Committee were informed of the following points:

·       The Members allowance had been included in the recommendations to Council to approve so the scheme could not be changed.

·       The changes were mainly to highlight the changing items and to make points clearer and to modernise the language.

·       There were some additional changes that had been highlighted since the Working Group meeting, and these would also need to be considered.

·       The Terms of Reference changes were changes to personal to the Health and Wellbeing Board and these would be taken straight to Full Council since they were only technical changes. The Committee were asked to take into consideration only.

·       Members were reminded of the Addenda published on the scheme of delegation, Part 7.2, that included, where the Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer was authorised to take any action to implement any decision taken by or on behalf of the Council, including the signature and service of statutory and other notices and any document; and authority to apply the Common Seal of the County Council to deeds in order to execute them.

·       The Committee were also reminded of the recommendation from the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, that they preferred to have greater flexibility to allow more experienced Members to hold the role of Deputy Chair and would therefore prefer to remain with the status quo that the Deputy was elected by the Chair.

 

Members of the Committee made the following comments that were responded to by Officers:

 

·       The suggestion to reduce the speaking time for outside speaker to three minutes was very little time. The change added clarity to outside speakers upfront knowing that they only had three minutes, so to only prepare for that.

·       The Call-in decision process, it was suggested that the public could put forward an idea which the Committee could discuss and decide upon and brought to a future meeting if agreed. If it was agreed that the decision would lie with the Monitoring Officer, then a report would be brought back to the next meeting, for transparency. ACTION

·       It was suggested that social benefits be added to the procedure rules, explicitly. This would be considered of where it could be added, possibly as part of social value in Paragraph 8.2. ACTION

·       Where it read, ‘official opposition have the right to speak to Council’, to add ‘and other Members of the Opposition at the Chair’s discretion for three minutes’.

·       Opposition Members to be able to request a briefing to ask questions of Officers.

·       The effective communication with Councillors was a good paragraph that needed to be communicated to all Officers that Members needed all the appropriate information. The Officer core to be given training and education. ACTION

·       Could Members attend Council remotely? Members could only vote if they were present at a meeting. This had been debated at length by the Working Group.

·       It was that there was one motion per Member, now it was one motion per Political Group, this was very limiting. This was discussed in detail and it was the Monitoring Officer’s responsibility to keep under review and update if required. It would be reviewed again after six months.

·       The Constitution needed to be more visible on the website and be searchable globally to include areas within the Constitution. The Constitution would soon be available as a single document so would be fully searchable.

·       Signatories for petitions had been increased from 10 to 100 signatories; this was a very big change especially if the area for petition had less than 100 residents. Research had been completed across other authorities. Members of the Working Group reflected on the research and felt that 10 was too few and 100, compared to other authorities was better. This was the majority view at the Working Group.

·       The livestream of meetings was only retained for six months, could this be increased? The decision made on this was six months, but the Monitoring Officer would go look into this. ACTION

·       It was a large epic piece of work to move forward with.

·       The authorisation of proposals contract was being changed to have one signature for up to £200k. This had been based on a risk assessment by the Section 151 Officer and the value of business carried out reflected in accountability. The 25k was putting restraints to the organisation. There was further detail in the report at page 166.

·       The Monitoring Officer confirmed afterwards (on the question raised by Cllr Phillips) that the Council meeting rules for public speakers also apply to scrutiny meetings (Part 6.2, Section 18).

 

The Monitoring Officer commented that the review of the Constitution would be ongoing and constant so these could be considered as part of the next review.

 

A proposal was put forward to take all the recommendations forward and consider again in six months. This was seconded. Members requested that the comments from the Committee be added as part of the report to Full Council, especially since the Monitoring Officer had accepted one of them.

 

The number of signatories for a petition was discussed again by the Committee as they felt that 100 was too many. After a lengthy debate, the Committee unanimously agreed to reduce to 50 signatories from 100.

 

Resolved:

 

to RECOMMEND to Council

 

(a)           to approve amendments listed in Annex 1 to the following Parts of the Council’s Constitution:

 

(i)                Part 1.2 How Oxfordshire County Council Operates;

(ii)               Part 1.3 Decision Making;

(iii)              Part 3.1 Council Procedure Rules;

(iv)             Part 3.1A Virtual Meeting Procedure Rules (delete);

(v)               Part 3.3 Virement Rules;

(vi)             Part 4.2 Cabinet Procedure Rules;

(vii)            Part 4.4 Delegated Decisions by Individual Cabinet Members;

(viii)           Part 4.6 Transport Advisory Panel (delete);

(ix)             Part 5.1A Regulatory and Other Committees;

(x)               Part 5.1B Health and Wellbeing Board;

(xi)             Part 6.1A Overview and Scrutiny Committees;

(xii)            Part 6.1B Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee;

(xiii)           Part 6.1C Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire West Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee Terms of Reference (new Part);

(xiv)          Part 6.2 Overview and Scrutiny Committee Procedure Rules;

(xv)            Part 6.3 Protocol on Scrutiny Participation (delete);

(xvi)          Part 7.2 Scheme of Delegation to Officers;

(xvii)         Part 8.3 Contract Procedure Rules;

(xviii)        Part 9.2 Protocol on Councillors’ Rights and Responsibilities;

(xix)          Part 9.4 Policy on IT Use by Members of the County Council (delete);

(xx)            Part 9.6 Protocol on Member-Officer Relations;

(xxi)          Part 10.1 Members’ Allowances;

(xxii)         correct erroneous references and update titles where they have changed;

 

subject to the following changes:

 

                                    I.      In Part 3.1 Section 10.1.1 (iii) “minimum number of 50 people” instead of 100 (for a petition);

                                  II.      In Part 6.1B, withdrawing the proposed amendment to Section 8 on the position of Deputy Chair;

                                 III.      In Part 6.2, Section 19 (o) append “If the Call-in request is deemed invalid, the assessment will be reported by the Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer to the next meeting of the relevant Scrutiny Committee.”

                                IV.      In Part 8.3, Section 8.1 add the text in bold: “In determining the relevant evaluation criteria for any procurement, Authorised Officers, in consultation with their Relevant Procurement Team, must consider all factors relevant to their requirement, including environmental and social considerations, including social value benefit where appropriate, so far as this is lawful.”

 

(b)           to delegate to the Director of Law & Governance and Monitoring Officer the ability to make any necessary additional changes to the Constitution to amend any inconsistencies arising from these proposed changes and where any existing drafting in the Constitution is inconsistent with the changes set out in this report and approved by Council.

 

(c)           to delegate to the Director of Law & Governance and Monitoring Officer the ability to update Part 10.1 Members’ Allowances annually in line with any requirement under the Scheme of Allowances to apply indexation to Members’ Allowances.

 

(d)           to amend Part 7.2, Scheme of Delegations to Officers, Section 6.4 (a) to include the following subsections:

 

                                          i.         The Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer will be responsible for the safe-keeping and secure administration of the Common Seal of the Council.

 

                                         ii.         The Common Seal of the Council may be affixed either by physical means or by such electronic means as the Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer may from time to time authorise. References in this Rule and elsewhere in the Constitution to the Common Seal (or the Seal) of the Council and to the sealing of documents shall be taken to refer to the official seal and any accompanying attesting signatures as being affixed either by physical means, or by the electronic means provided for in this Rule.

 

                                        iii.         The Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer or other person authorised by them may authenticate any document that may be required for legal proceedings.