Agenda item

To consider the report of the Executive Head of Corporate (attached).

The Council was informed that the Governance Working Group had reviewed the procedures for Questions from Members of the Public at meetings of the Full Council and had agreed to propose the procedure rules be updated by:

 

a.      Increasing the time allocated for Questions from 15 to 30 minutes;

b.      Clarifying that questions would be heard in the order received and, where an individual submitted more than one question, one question would be prioritised and all others heard after any questions from other members of the public;

c.      Clarifying that any questions received that are not able to be heard within the 30 minutes will receive a written response from the relevant Member;

d.      Limiting the length of a question to 125 words, with any words exceeding that cut from the published question;

e.      Clarifying that responses to questions will be published by 2pm on the day of the meeting;

f.       Stating that criticism directed at a named officer will not be accepted; and

g.      Giving authority to the Executive Head of Corporate in consultation with the Monitoring Officer to defer or reject a question received during the pre-election period.

 

The Working Group had also reviewed Questions from Councillors and had agreed to clarify wording to state that the answer must be published by 2pm on the day of the meeting. Having reviewed Leaders’ Question Time, with the exception of a minor typographical change, it was not proposed to make any changes to these procedures.

 

The Council was informed that the Working Group had proposed additions to the Executive Procedure Rules at Part 4 to reflect the recommendations in the Browne Jacobson report on the decision to award the former Chief Executive an Additional Duties Allowance. The Procedure Rules would now state that, where the Leader or a Portfolio Holder made decisions individually, any advice sought or received by a Member must be recorded.

 

The Working Group had recommended that the definition of a Key Decision be extended to include the release of securities, plus additions to the Scheme of Delegation of Functions to Officers and Financial Regulations to explicitly state that no officer was permitted to release any security, warranty or guarantee in favour of the council, unless contractually obliged to do so, without the written approval of the Section 151 Officer, or the Executive or relevant committee. These changes had been proposed in response to the Monitoring Officer’s report on the decision to release a local land charge on Field 81, Pennypot Lane, Chobham.

 

Members were informed that it was proposed to make a minor update to the licensing functions in the Scheme of Delegation of Functions to Officers to include reference to two pieces of legislation that had been inadvertently missed. It was also proposed to update the General Principles of the Scheme to delegate authority to officers to act in response to any legislation relating to the Covid-19 pandemic and any future pandemics.

 

RESOLVED that

 

(i)        Paragraph 3 of Public Speaking Procedure Rules at Part 4, Section E of the Constitution be amended, as set out at Annex A to this report;

 

(ii)      Paragraph 11 of Council Procedure Rules at Part 4, Section A of the Constitution be amended as follows:

 

11.3    Response

 

The question will be put and answered without discussion.  An answer given may be given:

 

(a)   orally;

 

(ab)by reference to published material of the Council or that which is readily available to the members; or

 

(bc)in writing.

 

The question and the written response will be circulated to Councillors by no later than 2.00pm on the day of the Council meeting;

 

(iii)     Paragraph 11A of Council Procedure Rules at Part 4, Section A of the Constitution be amended as follows

 

11A.1     The purpose of Leader’s Question Time is to allow Members to ask questions of the Leader which relate to his/her area of responsibility.;

 

(iv)     paragraph 10.3 of the Executive Procedure Rules at Part 4, Section B of the Constitution be updated as follows:

 

“As soon as reasonably practicable after an Executive decision has been taken by the Leader or an individual member of the Executive or a key decision taken by an officer, the Chief Executive will prepare a record of the decision, a statement of the reasons for it, any advice sought or received from officers, and the options considered”.;

 

(v)      Paragraph 13.3 (b) (i) of Article 13 of the Constitution be is updated as follows:

 

Key Decisions

 

(i)     Key decisions are those:

 

·           likely to result in expenditure, release of any securities (except where any release is pursuant to a contractual obligation) or savings of at least £100,000 or £100 million if it relates to treasury management matters or there may otherwise be an impact on the Council’s financial standing; or

·           likely to have a significant impact on people or organisations in two or more wards within the Borough

·           which are made in the course of developing proposals to the Council to amend the policy framework;

 

(vi)     Paragraph 5 of the General Principles of the Scheme of Delegation of Functions to Officer at Part 3, Section B of the Constitution be updated as follows:

 

5.      Finance and Budgets

 

5.1   Financial Regulations at Part 4 of this Constitution contain a number of authorisations to officers. All financial decisions made by officers must be taken in accordance with Financial Regulations or as otherwise authorised in this Scheme of Delegation.

 

5.2   No officer may release any security, warranty or guarantee in favour of the Council, unless contractually obliged to do so, without the written approval of the Council’s Section 151 officer or the Executive/ relevant Committee;

 

(vii)   paragraph 6.6 of Financial Regulations at Part 4, Section H of the Council’s Constitution be updated to include the following:

 

6.      Debt Write-Off and Release of Securities 

 

6.6.3        No officer may release any security, warranty or guarantee in favour of the Council, unless contractually obliged to do so, without the written approval of the Council’s Section 151 officer or the Executive/ relevant Committee.

 

(viii)  the Scheme of Delegation of Functions to Officers at Part 3, Section B of the Constitution be updated as follows:

 

a)        The Executive Head of Community’s licensing delegations be updated to include the following Acts:

 

a.      The Town and Police Clauses Act 1847

b.      Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976; and

 

b)        The following section be inserted in the Appendix to the General Principles

 

10. Response to Pandemics

 

10.1 The Executive Head of Community is appointed as the designated officer for the purposes of the following legislation:

 

1)    The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 (as amended)

2)    The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No.2) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/684), as amended

3)    The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Obligations of Undertakings) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1008) (as amended)

4)    The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation) (England) Regulations 2020

5)    The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Collection of Contact Details etc and Related Requirements) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1005)

6)    The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/791), as amended.

 

and any subsequent relating legislation.

 

10.2  The following officers are appointed for the purposes of the enforcement of the above regulations:

a. Any Environmental Health Officer

b. Any Licensing Officer.

 

 10.3 The Executive Head of Community will be appointed as the designated officer or equivalent in response to a national or local pandemic, as declared by the Government or Surrey Local Resilience Forum. The Executive Head of Community and Head of Legal will be authorised to appoint officers to undertake any necessary enforcement arising from the pandemic.