Agenda item

Report by Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer

The Constitution Working Group met between November 2024 and February 2025 and has proposed amendments to the Constitution as outlined in this report.  A small number of additional changes agreed by the Audit & Governance Committee and by the Oxfordshire Health & Wellbeing Board are also included in the report.

Council is RECOMMENDED to

(a)      to approve amendments listed and tracked in Annex 1 (including Appendices 1 to 21) to the following Parts of the Council’s Constitution, as proposed by the Constitution Working Group and, in the cases of (iii), (xii), (xiv) and (xvii), as amended by the Audit & Governance Committee:

(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 approve additional items in Annex 2 agreed by the Audit & Governance Committee;

(c)       to approve amendments in Annex 3 agreed by the Oxfordshire Health & Wellbeing Board to its Terms of Reference;

(d)      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.