Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Hollybank Room, Public Service Plaza, Civic Centre Road, Havant, Hants PO9 2AX. View directions

Contact: Mark Gregory or Nicholas Rogers  Democratic Services

Items
No. Item

Councillor Francis was invited to join the meeting

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

No apologies for absence were received.

 

2.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

 

3.

Review of the Constitution pdf icon PDF 63 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel considered the final report for the Review of the Constitution. The Monitoring Officer and Democratic Services Officer (EHDC) were invited to join the debate and answer any members’ questions.

 

During the discussion, the following points were raised:

 

1.    The Monitoring Officer would consider legislation when defining ‘significant’ in relation to key decisions and would present a final recommendation on the wording to the Governance and Audit Committee;

2.    The Panel would not be recommending to make Cabinet Lead reports mandatory;

3.    The Panel would not be recommending to amend timescales for the submission of questions from Councillors to Full Council;

4.    The Panel felt that it was important to require members to read relevant sections of the Constitution to committees, boards and sub-committees to which they are appointed and sign declarations to this effect;

5.    SO85.11 would be amended to clarify the procedure for call-in of a Cabinet decision; and

6.    SO75.1 and SO75.2 would be amended to clarify the different processes and timescales for non-executive and executive members to refer matters to the Scrutiny Board and its Panels.

 

The Scrutiny Lead would present the findings of the review to the Governance and Audit Committee on 24 April 2017.

 

RESOLVED that the Governance and Audit Committee be requested to recommend that Council:

 

a)    Agree to the changes to the Constitution as set out in Appendix A to the Panel’s report;

b)    Require all members to read Part 3 of the Constitution and sign a declaration to this effect each municipal year; and

c)    Require all members of a committee, board or sub committee to read the terms of reference of each committee, board or sub committee to which they are appointed and sign a declaration to that effect.