Appendix 1: PROPOSED
AMENDMENTS TO PART 3.2 - PROCEDURE RULES FOR MEETINGS OF FULL
COUNCIL, COMMITTEES AND SUB-COMMITTEES
Proposed insertions
shown in red and deletions shown with tracked changes
Procedural Requirements
Number of Notices of Motion
The three
largest Political Groups:
-
2 1 per Group plus also 1 additional
notice of motion per Group jointly with another Group
-
any
other Group: 1
8.3 Any Member not
belonging to a Political Group may present not more than 1 notice
of motion, at the discretion of the Mayor.
8.4 Where Members of a
Political Group submit more than the permitted maximum number of
notices of motion, the Group shall decide which of these it wishes
to table. In the absence of such a decision, notices of motion from
members of a Political Group shall be taken in the order in which
they are received, up to the permitted maximum number.
[ ..]
[ ..
]
Oral
Questions from Members
9.9 Oral questions shall
relate to only be allowed where
they focus on matters of general policy only.
Questions not focused on general
policy,
for instance questions of a technical or purely
operational nature, will
normally may be disallowed by the
Mayor.or The Member to whom such a
question is directed may decline to answer or state that a written
answer will be provided.
9.10 In deciding whether a question is
technical or operational in nature, as opposed to a matter of
general policy, the Mayor and Members shall have regard to any
guidance provided by the Monitoring Officer.
9.11 No more than one
minute shall be allowed for the asking of each
oral
question and no more than three
minutes shall be allowed for the response. Oral
questions shall be taken in the following order:
-
Leader of the Official
Opposition
-
Leader(s) of any other
opposition Political Group(s) in order of diminishing numbers of
Political Group members
-
Members of the Groups
in order of diminishing size of the Political Group they belong
to
9.12 Each Political Group shall submit to the
Mayor in advance of the meeting the order in which they wish their
questions to be taken. The Mayor shall have regard to, but not be
bound by, these submissions.
9.13 The Mayor shall allow an Independent Member to
ask an oral question.
9.14 A Member may ask no more than one oral
question at the same Council meeting.
[ .. ]
Public
Questions
Public Question Time
9.20 A period of not
more than fifteen thirty minutes shall be
allowed for questions submitted by a member of the public who
either lives or works in the area of the Authority at each ordinary
meeting of the Council and its Committees/Sub Committees.
Any questions not dealt
with within the 30 min period will receive a written
response.
List of Questions
9.21 A list of the questions of which notice has
been given shall be circulated to Members of the Council/Committee
at, or before, the meeting at which they are to be asked,
with
priority being given to questions submitted by
members of the public who have not asked such a
question at any Council
meeting in the previous six months.
Procedural Requirements
9.22 A public question shall be put at a
Council/Committee meeting provided that: -
(a)
a copy of the question has been delivered to the office of the
Chief Executive (see Procedure Rule
1.6) by not later than 12 noon on the
second working day after publication of the agenda of the meeting
at which it is to be put;
(b)
the name and address of the questioner is indicated on the
question;
(c)
the questioner is present at the time when the question is
put;
(d) the
questioner is not presenting a petition or deputation on the same,
or substantially the same, issue at the same
meeting.
Length of
Questions
9.23 A question shall not exceed 100 words in
length. The Chief Executive, after consultation with the
questioner, may summarise a question to comply with this
requirement.
Formal Referral of Questions from full Council
9.24 If the Mayor considers that it would be more
appropriate to do so, a question received for submission to Council
may instead be referred to the relevant Committee or Sub-Committee
(but not Joint-Committee) for answer and shall be dealt with in
accordance with the Council’s Protocol for Public Questions
at Committee and Sub-Committee meetings which forms Part 8.9 of the
Constitution.
Waiver of Notice Requirement
9.25 If the Mayor/Chair considers that, by
reason of special circumstances, it is desirable that a question
shall be asked at a meeting of the Council/Committee although due
notice of the question has not been given, and if the Mayor/Chair
is satisfied that as much notice as is possible has been given to
the person of whom it is to be asked, they may permit the question
to be asked.
Putting Questions
9.26 Subject to CPR 9.21
above, questions will be asked in the order notice of
them was received, except that the Mayor/Chair may group together
similar questions. Any question shall be notified to the relevant
Member of the Council/Committee and shall be put to such Member at
the Council/Committee meeting by the questioner, who shall
read the question out loud without additional
comment.
Answers
Form of Answers
9.28 An answer may take the form of:-
(a)
a direct oral answer; or
(b)
where the desired information is contained in a publication of the
Council, a reference to that publication; or
(c)
where the reply to the question cannot conveniently be given
orally, a written answer given to the member of the public
submitting the question and circulated to the Council.
9.30 Any question properly
submitted but not dealt with at the Council meeting
for
reasons of insufficient time shall be answered in
writing to the questioner as soon as reasonably practicable after
the meeting.
[ .. ]
Rule 15: Rules of Debate (All
Meetings)
General
Seconding Motions and Amendments
Reserving Speech
Notice of Amendments
[ .. ]
Rule 22: Urgency
Sub Committees
22.1
Each Committee of the Council shall appoint an Urgency
SubCommittee to exercise its powers. The membership of such Urgency
Sub-Committee shall normally consist of the Chair of the Committee,
as well as two other Members nominated by the Group Leader or
Leaders as appropriate to meet the requirements for the allocation
of seats between Political Groups.
22.2
A meeting of the Urgency Sub Committee may be
called if the Committee Chair takes the view that it is not
reasonably
practicableappropriate to convene a full
Committee meeting, having had regard to the importance of the
business to be considered, the urgency of the decision and the need
to avoid disproportionate inconvenience. A meeting of the Urgency
Sub Committee may also be called where a majority of members decide
to do so at an Ordinary or Special Committee meeting.
[ .. ]
Rule 24: Proceedings of Committees
and Sub Committees
[ .. ]
24.3
Inclusion of Items on Council
Agenda
a) Items for
information shall relate to decisions made by the Committee under
delegated powers. The Committee may determine that any agenda item
is to be included in the report to Council. In addition, each
minority Political Group represented on the Committee may specify
one further item which shall be so included, by notifying the Chief
Executive of the item not later than 10.00 am on the eighth working
day before the Council meeting to which the report is to be made
or, if the Committee meeting takes place after this deadline,
immediately at the conclusion of the Committee meeting.
Items referred for information
under this provision are referred to Council for information only
– not for further discussion. As such, they are not
subject to call over and are not moved for discussion but are
included in the agenda for information only.
b) Items for
decision by Council shall be all those where a recommendation is
made on matters falling outside the delegated powers of the
Committee or where the Committee decides that the decision is to be
made by the Council.