Members received and considered the report of the Chief Executive which detailed the recommendations of the Constitution Review Steering Group (CRSG).  Councillor Drayson, the CRSG Chairman thanked his fellow CRSG Members and other Members who had attended the meetings for their contributions, as well as officers who had supported the meetings.

The recommendations represented the culmination of the work undertaken by the CRSG in reviewing the Council’s Constitution.  One of the actions required to deliver the Corporate Plan’s aim of creating an open Council was to modernise the way the Council operated by updating the Constitution.

The CRSG and officers undertook a thorough review by comparing Rother District Council’s Constitution against South Cambridgeshire District Council’s model in various parts, which had some synergy with how this Council operated, as well as neighbouring authorities’ constitutions and other good practice.  Relevant key service officers and the Corporate Management Team were also consulted as and when appropriate. 

Appendix 1 to the report identified the scope of work undertaken.  Part 3, Responsibility for Functions and Part 8, Delegations to Officers were still to be completed and these would follow in the coming months.  A full list of the main proposals was identified at Appendix 2 to the report and Appendices 2A to 2K listed each section of the constitution, with the recommended changes highlighted in red text.

During the discussion the following salient points were noted:

·       grammatical / spelling errors would be amended;

·       quoracy at meetings only related to those Members who were present in the Council Chamber (not remote); the Council Procedure Rules would be amended to clarify this;

·       the following question was raised regarding Article 2.8: should Leaders of Minor Opposition Groups also report to the Council, where the opposition groups were not in coalition?  Recommendation 6) clarified that the year following an election year, the Council would receive a report highlighting any changes made to the Constitution.  Dependent on the make-up of the Council, it was suggested that this would be the most sensible / opportune time to consider this type of amendment;

·       important that all Members (not just Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee) understood the functions and role of scrutiny;

·       clarity was sought regarding the opportunity to raise “matters arising” questions at formal meetings and whether this required an alteration to the Constitution.  It was understood that a five working day notice period was required.  The Chief Executive advised that it depended on the matter, as the answer could be a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No, or it might require a detailed response.  It was important that agendas were open, transparent and adhered too, otherwise there was the potential that they could become unwieldy and cumbersome.  Members were reminded that minutes could only be challenged / altered if factual inaccuracies were found.  Questions raised by Members would be answered promptly;

·       it was clarified that the Chair of the Council would be annually elected, however the same Councillor could be elected to serve for a two-year consecutive period; and

·       the Constitution was a living document and could and would be updated / amended as and when appropriate.  

After discussion, it was agreed that all of the recommendations be approved for Cabinet and then full Council ratification. 

RESOLVED: That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommends to Cabinet and then full Council: 

1)  all proposed amendments to the Council’s Constitution highlighted within Appendix 2 to the report, and contained within Appendices 2A-2K be approved and adopted;

2)  the current governance model (executive / scrutiny split with no individual Cabinet Member decision making) be maintained;

3)  a new stand-alone advisory Human Resources Committee comprising seven Members, to meet twice per year and assigned all functions relating to staffing matters that currently come under the remit of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee be created (the Licensing and General Purposes Committee to remain as currently constituted without HR related functions);

4)  the Leader of the Council be requested to add Human Resources to their Cabinet Portfolio;

5)  a review be undertaken by the incoming administration at the start of each new 4-year Council term, within its first year, to consider the decision-making structure and any proposals for change; 

6)  in each “normal” subsequent year following an election year, the Annual Council meeting to receive a report highlighting any changes that have been made to the Constitution in the preceding 12 months, under officer delegations or otherwise;

7)  the Planning Advisory Services’ latest Probity in Planning Guidance be automatically adopted and incorporated into the Constitution;

8)  that general awareness / training on the Constitution be offered to all Councillors; and

9)  the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny be commissioned to undertake a scrutiny improvement review during 2022/23, to be funded from the Member Training Budget, subject to the approval of the Member Development Task Group / Member Training Champion.