The Chief Officer – Legal, HR and Regulatory Services presented a report, the purpose of which, was to seek Council’s approval of:

·         a number of minor refinements to the Constitution in relation to the sealing of Council legal documents to enable a more efficient management of the legal process;

·         amending the Constitution to incorporate the revised Contract Procedure Rules; and

·         amending the Council’s Scheme of Delegation of Functions in relation to Council functions in accordance with section 4.7 of this Report.

She explained by way of background, that certain agreements, namely land transfers and contracts over an agreed monetary value, are required to be executed as deeds. This enables enforcement action to be commenced after the usual time limitation period of 6 years. In such instances the agreements are completed by the signature of an Authorising Officer and by affixing the Council’s Common Seal.

Also, the Council is required to review the Contract Procedure Rules, which form part of the Council’s Constitution, on a regular basis.

The Chief Officer – Legal, HR and Regulatory Services continued by stating that, Article 14.05 of the Constitution requires that “the affixing of the Common Seal shall be attested by either the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the Leader or the Deputy Leader and by the Solicitor of the Council or a person authorised by him/her”.

The inclusion of these Members is an historical requirement and it is unclear what purpose this additional requirement serves given the complex nature of these documents and the governance processes that are undertaken before such documents are sealed. The logistics around the current process arguably involve unnecessary delay and expense and it is therefore suggested that the requirement for the Mayor or Deputy Mayor, Leader or Deputy Leader to attest the sealing of documents is removed.  This is now the common practice of a number of local authorities.

It was therefore recommended that this Article of the Constitution be amended as per paragraph 4.2 of the report, along the lines recommended above.

Furthermore, Rule 20.2 of the Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs) provides that: “Every Contract, including frameworks which exceed £500,000 shall be executed under Seal”.  The monetary value of a contract is not the sole factor in determining whether an agreement requires execution under Seal. Statutory and common law requirements and practical consideration such as the complexity of the arrangement also need to be considered. It was therefore proposed that the CPRs within the Constitution be amended to read, ‘Every Contract, including frameworks which exceed £500,000 in amount or value shall be referred to the Solicitor for the Council for approval.’

Paragraph 4.4 of the report, further recommended that the following be inserted at Article 15.03 to allow the Monitoring Officer to make typographical and other corrections to the Constitution:-

“The Monitoring Officer in consultation with the Head of Paid Service shall have power to make typographical and other corrections and clarification amendments to the Constitution (provided they do not make substantive change to the meaning of the Constitution) and to make updating amendments to the Constitution where required due to changes in legislation”.  

Following a review of the Contract Procedure Rules, a number of changes have been made to the existing Contract Procedure Rules to ensure the Council modernises the way it procures goods, services and works. A copy of the revised Contract Procedure Rules was attached to the report at Appendix 1 to the report.

A report was presented to Cabinet on 14th September 2021 to approve the revised Contract Procedure Rules to take effect from 1st October 2021.

The revised Contract Procedure Rules now needed to be incorporated into the Constitution.

Paragraph 4.7 of the report, outlined amendments to the Scheme of Delegations with regards to its Council functions. These related to the General Powers of Chief Officers and to Scheme B2 and were itemised in the report, including by way of tracked changes (that reflected the proposed changes).

The Chief Officer – Legal, HR and Regulatory Services advised that a similar report was submitted to Cabinet yesterday for amendments to their Executive functions.

RESOLVED:                           That Council:

(1)        approved the amendments to the Constitution as set out within this report;

(2)        noted the revised Contract Procedure Rules to take effect from 1st October 2021; and

(3)        approved the amendments to the Scheme of Delegation of Functions in relation to Council functions as set out in section 4.7 of the Report.