Agenda item

Nick Hughes led the discussion and highlighted the key changes and requested Member feedback to the proposed amendments to the Council Constitution. The proposed changes had been forwarded to Standards by the Constitutional Review Working Party. Some of the changes included the following:

• That no paper copies of the council constitution would be issued to Members as councillors can access this document electronically. This will be reflected in the updated version of the constitution;
• The electronic version was easier to search via Members’ ipads and the public can access it on the council website;
• Printing of constitution was an additional cost to the limited resources available to the council;
• One other amendment would allow Members to withdraw or defer their questions or notices of motion. This provision would permit Members to re-submit that same motion/question at a future meeting;
• That such request to withdraw questions/motions should be made through an email using the official TDC allocated email account. The request could also be made through a letter written to Democratic Services.

In response to the presentation Members made comments and asked questions as follows:

• They were concerned that as a result of the changes being suggested, no more paper copies of the constitution were going to be printed out for councillors. Some Members preferred paper copies;
• Could a Member ask a question or introduce a motion on behalf of another Member who would not have been able to attend the meeting?
• Could a Member question be withdrawn or deferred at the meeting if the Cabinet Member who was meant to respond to that question was not in attendance?
• Who deputised the Monitoring Officer and shouldn’t that officer role be included in the constitution?
• Members were largely in support of the amendments being proposed by the Constitutional Review Working Party.

Responding to Member queries Mr Howes, Mr Hughes and the Chairman indicated that:

• Electronic versions of the constitution would always be up to date as they were easier to amend as soon as Council made decisions to update the constitution;
• Members of the Constitutional review Working Party had debated long and hard on the issue regarding not printing paper copies of the constitution any more, but had come to the conclusion that the electronic version approach was the way forward;
• The right to ask a question was an individual right of Members and cannot be passed on to another Member. If the Member with the question was unable to attend the meeting then that would call for the question to be withdrawn/deferred to a future meeting;
• If a Cabinet Member was not in attendance at Council meetings to respond to Member questions, the Leader of Council would step in to give responses as requested by Members;
• The (Interim) Head of Legal Services was the Deputy Monitoring Officer and by law the Deputy Monitoring Officer acted in the absence of the Monitoring Officer.

Councillor Johnston proposed, Councillor Lin Fairbrass seconded and members of the committee agreed the following:

a)  To amend paragraph 16.03 a) to read: “The Committee Services Manager will provide  an electronic copy of this Constitution to each member of the authority upon delivery to him/her of that individual’s declaration of acceptance of office on the member first being elected to the Council.”

b)  To amend Council Procedure 3.3 to read: “The Monitoring Officer shall include all notices of motion and accompanying statements in the agenda for the next relevant meeting of Council in the order received.”

c)  To add a new Council Procedure Rule 3.4 to read “A member giving notice in writing (either by official TDC email or via letter) prior to the start of the meeting at which their motion is to be considered, may defer their motion to a later meeting or withdraw it if they are unable to attend the said meeting. If no such notice is received and the member is not present to move the motion it will automatically fall and will not be able to be re-considered for six months as per CPR 3.8 xi).”

d)  To amend Council Procedure Rule 14.6 to read: “The Monitoring Officer will reject a question if it is…”

e)  To add a new Council Procedure Rule 14.7 to read: “A member giving notice in writing prior to the start of the meeting at which their question is to be considered, may defer their question to a later meeting or withdraw it if they are unable to attend the said meeting.”

f)  To add a new Council Procedure Rule 14.8 to read: “If such notice is not received and the questioner is not present the question shall not be put and shall be answered in writing. There will be no ability to ask a supplementary question.”

g)  To note that all subsequent numbering of the council procedure rules would be amended in order to accommodate the changes suggested above.