Agenda item
Constitution Review
- Meeting of General Purposes Committee, Tuesday, 5th October, 2021 6.00 p.m. (Item 4.7)
- View the background to item 4.7
Minutes:
Matthew Mannion, Head of Democratic Services, introduced the regular constitution review report and highlighted the changes detailed in the report;
At the request of the Chair, Mr Mannion referred Members to each of the decisions that required consideration and the following was noted;
Part B
- General Purposes Committee Terms of Reference – change to allow general reports on employee appeals and related matters.
AGREED
Part B
- Standards Advisory Committee Terms of Reference – (change agreed by SAC) to highlight their powers to report to Council as required,
AGREED
Part B
- Functions of the Chief Executive, Monitoring Officer, Chief Finance Officer and Corporate Directors – to include reference to make it clear that the Monitoring Officer has direct reporting line to Chief Executive.
It was noted that following suggestions made by the General Purposes Committee during the Senior Management Review, the structure now includes the Monitoring Officer’s direct reporting line to the Chief Executive.
The delegated powers for the Deputy Chief Executive were also set out.
AGREED
Part B - Council Procedure Rules
- Full Executive Procedure Rules should be presented at the AGM
AGREED
Part B - Council Procedure Rules
- Option to include a noting report to the Council agenda setting out any Call-Ins received by the Executive since the last Council meeting.
Mr Mannion explained that Full Council had no formal role in Call-Ins so they could not overturn a decision. However, in line with transparency it was proposed that a regular noting report be put to Council setting out any Call-Ins received, it was highlighted that the report would be for noting as opposed to being for decision. Mr Mannion highlighted the fact that this may take up time at Council meetings, however Officers remained neutral on this matter and sought views from the Committee.
The Committee’s general view was that the current system where Call-Ins are reported to Overview & Scrutiny allowed sufficient time to discuss and consider the Call-In, before referring back to Cabinet for reconsideration, was fit for purpose. It was noted that the Constitution sets out distinctive responsibilities and functions for Cabinet, Council and each Committees which work well and therefore there was no need for noting at Council meetings.
Members were also concerned about the time this would take at Full Council meetings when no decision making was required and therefore questioned whether this would be a good use of time at Council meetings.
It was clear that there was no strong view either way from Officers regarding this option and was mainly about transparency. The overall committee opinion on this proposal was to reject this proposal at there were procedures already in place for reporting Call-Ins.
REJECT
Part B - Council Procedure Rules
- Clarification of Member questions rules and making it clearer where the Mayor is expected to respond.
Mr Mannion explained that further clarifications were required to be introduced to the Executive Scheme of Delegation on Member question rules which had been out of date and did not reflect what the current practice was. Therefore, the proposal is to amend them to clarify what questions the Mayor should be answering and those that Cabinet Members should be responding to.
AGREED
Part B - Council Procedure Rules
- To include a new section on webcasts, virtual attendance and hybrid meetings.
AGREED
Part C
- Financial and Contract Procedures – to bring the thresholds into line with the Key Decision thresholds (raising them from the current £250k). Anything between £250k and £1M should be published on website as an officer decision.
Mr Mannion explained that the Council’s Key Decision thresholds were updated in 2019 to include a new financial threshold of £1 Million for most decisions. At the time not all the financial and procurement thresholds were adjusted to bring them into line. The appendices in the report set out a number of proposed revisions to bring these thresholds into line with the standard Key Decision thresholds. This would mean that contracts under £1 million would be considered officer decisions and would be published as Officer Decisions and anything over £1 million would be key decisions. However, anything that was politically sensitive would be taken to Cabinet for decision regardless of the value.
Mr Mannion also highlighted the request for the Monitoring Officer to be given delegated authority in case further related amendments were identified in relation to the above decision.
In response to a question, it was noted that a full benchmarking exercise was done on the financial thresholds in 2019 when the Council brought in the key decision thresholds and at that time London Borough of Tower Hamlets was towards the top end of the thresholds, a quarter of the authorities in London didn’t have a threshold and used the word ‘significant’ as a key decision and there were a couple who had similar thresholds and the rest were below this figure.
AGREED
Part C - Employment Procedure Rules
- Change to allow the Chief Executive to make interim appointments for 6 months rather than 3 months
- A new requirement that permanent appointments to Monitoring Officer or Chief Finance Officer roles must be approved by Council.
AGREED
The Committee noted and agreed the changes set out.
Accordingly, the Chair Moved and it was:-
RESOLVED
- Consider the changes in Paragraphs 3.3 to 3.14 of the report and set out in detail in Appendices 1 – 4 to the report.
- Agree the changes in Paragraphs 3.3 to 3.13 and as set out in Appendices 1 – 4 to the report.
- To note that the new Employee Appeals process agreed by the Committee on 24 June 2021 will come into effect from 1 November 2021.
- Note the changes in Paragraphs 3.14 and as set out in Appendices 1 – 4 to the report.
- Note that the proposed new Member Code of Conduct set out at Appendix 5 may be submitted to Council on 17 November 2021 for consideration, subject to any final comments of the Standards Advisory Committee.
- To delegate to the Monitoring Officer any consequential changes resulting from the above and to reflect any decisions made at the meeting.
Supporting documents:
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Constitution Review, item 4.7
PDF 285 KB
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Appendix. 1 Part A Constitution, item 4.7
PDF 425 KB
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Appendix. 2 Part B Constitution, item 4.7
PDF 1 MB
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Appendix. 3 Part C Constitution, item 4.7
PDF 1 MB
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Appendix. 4 Part D Constitution, item 4.7
PDF 3 MB
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Appendix. 5 Draft New Code of Conduct, item 4.7
PDF 368 KB