Agenda item

Details attached.

The Chairman reported receipt of the above mentioned motion from Cllrs Jon Hubbard and Gordon King.

Cllr Hubbard moved the following motion which was duly seconded by Cllr King:

‘Council resolves to amend the provisions on call-in as set out in Part 8 Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules of the constitution to enable a call-in request to be made by any 5 non-executive members of the council or the Chair of the Management Committee.

Specifically to amend Paragraph 34 removing the words "three members of the management committee" and inserting "five non-executive members of the council". Therefore the new paragraph would now read:

During that period, the designated scrutiny officer shall call-in a decision for scrutiny by the management committee if so requested by the chair or any five non-executive members of the Council, and shall then notify the decision-maker of the call-in. He/she shall call a meeting of the management committee on such date as he/she may determine, where possible after consultation with the chair of the management  committee, and in any case within five days of the decision to call-in.

This change to the constitution to take immediate effect.’

Cllr Hubbard considered that the motion should be adopted to correct what he considered to be an anomaly in that it only took 5 members out of 98 to requisition an extraordinary meeting of Council and only 3 members limited to the membership of a 13 strong overview and scrutiny management committee to request a call-in. He considered that the request for call-in should be available to all non-executive members.

As amendments to the constitution were reserved to Council, the Chairman moved that motion be debated and this was duly seconded and on being put to the vote, it was

Resolved:

That the motion be debated.

Debate

It was noted that the Standards Committee in considering the proposal at its meeting on 20 January 2014, agreed that the matter could be considered and determined by this Council meeting without referral back to the Committee.

In the debate which ensued, Cllr Roy While proposed an amendment to the effect that a request for call-in be made by any 10 non-executive members and this was accepted by Cllrs Hubbard and King.

Cllr Simon Killane, Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee explained that whilst he did not necessarily agree with the motion, it was up to the Council to agree.

Resolved:

a)            That motion no 7 – Changing call-in procedures be adopted as amended as follows:

            That paragraph 34 of Part 8 of the constitution – Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules be amended as follows:

            ‘During that period, the designated scrutiny officer shall call-in a  decision for scrutiny by the management committee if so requested by any ten non-executive members of the Council, and shall then notify the decision-maker of the call-in. He/she shall call a meeting of the management committee on such date as he/she may determine, where possible after consultation with the chair of the management  committee, and in any case within five days of the decision to call-in’.

b)           That this change to the constitution to take immediate effect.