To approve the recommended changes to the Constitution (Council Procedure Rules) for referral onto Full Council following a review undertaken by the former Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance (Councillor Guglielmi) through the Councillor Development Portfolio Holder Working Party.

The proposals cover amendments to the Council Procedure Rules 33.3, 34.3 and 34.4, in order to ensure the Council’s Constitution remains effective, efficient and consistent at an operational level and to be an expression of best practise and meet expectations of Members.

In addition, this report sets out an update in relation to proposals for amendments to the terms of reference and delegated powers of the Human Resources & Council Tax Committee and its sub-committee.

RESOLVED that Cabinet RECOMMENDS TO COUNCIL that the Council’s Constitution be amended to reflect the proposed changes as set out in Appendix 1 attached hereto report A.3.

Cabinet considered a report of the Leader of the Council & Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance (A.3), which sought its approval for the recommended changes to the Constitution (Council Procedure Rules) for referral onto Full Council following a review undertaken by the former Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance (Councillor Guglielmi) through the Councillor Development Portfolio Holder Working Party. The proposals covered amendments to the Council Procedure Rules 33.3, 34.3 and 34.4, in order to ensure the Council’s Constitution remained effective, efficient and consistent at an operational level and to be an expression of best practise and to meet expectations of Members. In addition, this report set out an update in relation to proposals for amendments to the terms of reference and delegated powers of the Human Resources & Council Tax Committee and its sub-committee.

It was reported that the Councillor Development Portfolio Holder Working Party (CDWP) had met on 23 January 2023. At that meeting the Working Party, inter alia, had considered existing areas of mandatory training together with whether such mandatory training should be expanded to cover other areas such as for members of the Council’s overview and scrutiny committee.

In addition, Cabinet was made aware that the review of the terms of reference and delegated powers of the Human Resources and Council Tax Committee and its sub-committee to be conducted in accordance with Full Council’s decision taken on 29 March 2022 would be undertaken as part of this year’s annual review of the Constitution.

A summary of the proposed changes compared to the existing CPRs 33.3, 34.3 and 34.4 was provided in the background section of the Portfolio Holder’s report.

Having considered the outcome of the review of the mandatory training of Members carried out by the Councillor Development Portfolio Holder Working Party and the Portfolio Holder’s recommendation arising therefrom, and in order to enable that recommendation to be submitted to the Full Council for approval and adoption:-

It was moved by Councillor M E Stephenson, seconded by Councillor Baker and:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet RECOMMENDS TO COUNCIL that the Council’s Constitution be amended to reflect the proposed changes as set out in Appendix 1 attached hereto report A.3.