Agenda item

To receive a report from the Director of Finance, Resources & Customer Services (No.132) recommending a number of changes to the Council’s Constitution, agreed following consideration by the Governance Review Group on 1 September & 17 October 2011.

Councillor Simon (as Chair of the Governance Review Group) moved and Councillor Georgiou seconded the report from the Director of Finance, Resources & Customer Services (No.132) recommending a number of changes to the Council’s Constitution, referred following consideration by the Governance Review Group on 1 September & 17 October 2011.

NOTED

1.            The main changes proposed related to:

a.      the rules of debate at Council and Committee meetings

b.      the Terms of Reference and name of the Governance Review Group

c.      provision for substitute members on Overview & Scrutiny Committee

2.      The concerns raised by the Opposition Group relating to the impact that it was felt the proposed changes to the rules of debate at both Council and Committee meetings would have on the democratic process and at the drafting of the proposed amendment to Para 12.14 (Personal explanation).

3.      The proposed changes had been subject to detailed consideration and had been approved for referral onto Council by all members (from both Groups) present at the Governance Review Group.  In response to the concerns raised, it was pointed out that the changes had been recommended as a means of making the democratic process run more efficiently and effectively with the aim of allowing debate to flow more smoothly and without interruption (unless this was required to address a specific breach of the rules).

4.      The Governance Review Group would continue to keep the operation of any changes agreed to the rules of debate under review.

AGREED

(1)    to approve the following changes to the Rules of Debate at Council meetings in the Council’s Constitution:

(a)    When a member may speak again (Paragraph 12.6 in Chapter 4.1 of the Constitution – Page 4-12) amend to include as (h) under para 12.6:  “to allow the mover of an amendment to also have a right to sum up.  Such speeches to be limited to three minutes.”

(b)    Points of order and personal explanation (Paragraphs 12.13 & 12.14 in Chapter 4.1 of the Constitution – Page 4-15) – amend only to allow points of information and personal explanation to be made at the end of a speech to which they relate, with the relevant paragraphs amended to read:

·              Para 12.13 Point of Order – “A member may only raise a point of order at the end of the speech to which it relates.  A point of order may only relate to an alleged breach of these Council Rules of Procedure or the law.  The member must indicate the rule of law and the way in which he/she considers it has been broken.  The members speech will be limited to one minute, with any additional time to be agreed at the discretion of the Mayor.  The ruling of the Mayor on the matter will be final.”

·              Para 12.14 Personal explanation – “A member may only make a point of personal explanation at the end of the speech to which it relates.  A personal explanation may only relate to some material part of the earlier speech by the member, which may appear to have been misunderstood in the present debate.  The members speech will be limited to one minute, with any additional time to be agreed at the discretion of the Mayor.  The ruling of the Mayor on the admissibility of a personal explanation will be final.” – this wording includes amendments (highlighted in bold) agreed during the debate to address the issues raised on its original drafting.

The above resolution (1b) was put to the vote and approved with the following result:

For: 30

Against: 22

Abstention: 1

(c)    Time limit of members speeches (Paragraph 12.5 in Chapter 4.1 of the Constitution – Page 4-12) – to extend this provision so that the time limit of ten minutes to introduce an item and 5 minutes on other occasions be extended to all committee meetings.  Any additional time would be at the discretion of the Committee Chair, with the following provisions to be included within Chapters 4.2 (Scrutiny Procedure Rules) and 4.5 (Operating Rules for Committees) – Content/length of speeches:

“Speeches must be directed to the question under discussion.  The time limit for a speech to introduce an item should be no longer than 10 minutes with a 5 minute time limit in all other instances, with any additional time required being at the discretion of the Committee Chair.

Please note this will not apply to Council meetings.”

The above resolution (1c) was put to the vote and approved with the following result:

For: 30

Against: 21

Abstention: 2

(2)         To approve the revised Terms of Reference and change in name for the Governance Review Group to the Members & Democratic Services Group (as detailed in section 3.3 of the report).

(3)    To agree the inclusion (as detailed in section 3.5 of the report) of substitute arrangements for membership of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee so that if a member of the Committee cannot attend a particular meeting, a substitute may attend in their place

As a result of the above decisions, the Assistant Director Corporate Governance confirmed that the changes agreed to the rules of debate at Council would apply with immediate effect, including the remainder of the meeting.