The Democratic Services Manager requested that with the permission of the Chairperson that this item be considered lastly as the Monitoring Officer was required at another meeting but endeavoured to attend. The Chairperson agreed to consider the item lastly.

The Democratic Services Manager presented a report which outlined the findings of the Constitution Working Group which had reviewed elements of the Constitution.

He explained that the Monitoring Officer received a request from an Elected Member for a review of the Constitution. In accordance with Article 15 of the constitution the Monitoring Officer will monitor and review the operation of the Constitution to ensure that the aims and principles of the Constitution are given full effect. Any changes will need the approval of Council based on the recommendations of the Monitoring Officer.

The review of the Constitution specifically requested the following to be considered:

1)    The time period for questions and motions be re-instated at 5 days, now that suitable resources are in place to allow timely translation to Welsh;

2)    That following the presentations and announcements by Cabinet members, the Leader, and Chief Executive, Members be allowed to ask non tabled questions for a period of 15 minutes;

3)    That the three largest opposition groups, be given 3 minutes (taken from Development Control Committee 3-minute rule) to make announcements or presentations to Council;

4)    The timing of Council meetings

The following topics were discussed at the meetings at the Constitution Working Group:

• Time period for questions and motions
• Announcements at Meetings of Council
• Replies to Written Questions
• Announcements by the 3 Largest Opposition Group Leaders
• Timing of Council Meetings
• Call-in Process
• Period of Notice for the Publication of the Cabinet Decision Notice and Call-in
• Time Period for Holding an Overview and Scrutiny Committee
• Members Calling in a Decision

The Committee considered the following recommendations made by the Constitution Working Group. 

That the time period for the submission of questions and motions remain at 10 clear working days.  That announcements made made at Council, recommended that an amendment be made to the Constitution to re-title the Leader’s Report to that of Leader’s Announcements and that the current announcements made by the Cabinet be shortened.  That all Members of Council receive replies to written questions 24 hours prior to the meeting of Council where practicable.  The reply will be recorded in the minutes of that meeting of Council.  That announcements by Opposition Group Leaders could give rise to political statements being made and did not wish to pursue announcements being made by the Leaders of the 3 largest Opposition Groups.   That as the electronic vote taken on the conclusion of the meeting of Council on 24 July 2019 was lost, the holding of evening meetings be not explored further until the next administration.  The period of notice after publication of a decision be extended from the current 3 clear working days to 5 clear working days in order to have greater transparency and for backbench Members to have a greater opportunity to call-in a decision.  The time period for holding an Overview and Scrutiny Committee remains at within 5 clear working days.  That any Member including a Chairperson who calls-in a decision is excluded from the decision making at that Committee meeting, but would be invited to give evidence to the Committee in support of the Call-in request.             

A Member of the Committee considered that supplementary questions were often lengthy and occasionally did not relate to the original question.  The Democratic Services Manager explained that if a question was deemed inappropriate and not relating to the original question, the Monitoring Officer and Mayor would rule the question out of order.  

A Member asked if the above could be reinforced to Members to ensure that questions and supplementary questions are short and concise and related to the subject matter. The Democratic Services Manager confirmed he would feed this back to the Monitoring Officer.

The Committee requested that in relation to paragraph 4.7.2 of the report that a request be made to Council that future meetings of the Democratic Services Committee be held at 4.00pm. 

RESOLVED:        1. Noted the research and work undertaken by the Working Group and thanked the Monitoring Officer, Democratic Services Manager and Business Apprentice for their work in conducting research and providing support to the Constitution Working Group; 

2.Noted the recommendations of the Working Group;

3. That the Committee approved the recommendations of the Constitution Working Group for recommendation to Council with the addition of the following:

(i)  in relation to paragraph 4.3.9 of the report, added that there be clearer policing of supplementary questions to ensure they are relevant to the original question and that they short and concise;

in relation to paragraph 4.7.2 of the report, that a request be made to hold future meetings of the Democratic Services Committee at 4.00pm.