The Monitoring Officer presented a report seeking Cabinet approval for the revised constitution and constitution guide in relation to the Executive functions prior to submission to full Council.

The Monitoring Officer explained that Section 37 of the Local Government Act 2000 required Welsh County Councils to prepare and keep up to date a written constitution containing such information as Welsh Ministers may direct, a copy of the Authority’s standing orders, a copy of the Authority’s code of conduct for Members and such other information as the Authority considered appropriate. Section 45 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 (the Act) now required principal councils to publish a constitution guide which explained in ordinary language the content of the Council’s constitution. The principal councils must also publish their constitution and constitution guide electronically and provide a hard

copy, on request, either free of charge or at a charge (representing no more than the cost of providing the copy).

The Monitoring Officer explained that whilst the revised draft constitution (Appendix 1) looked quite different from the current version, the document largely comprised the same elements as outlined in the report. The constitution guide was attached at appendix 2 to the report. A guide summarising all the provisions of the constitution was also attached as Appendix 3 to the report. The model constitution and guides were considered by the Democratic Services Committee on 7 July 2022 and the Committee recommended that a Working Group be established with support from the Group Manager Legal and Democratic Services to review all aspects of the constitution. The Monitoring Officer thanked the Group Manager, Legal and Democratic Services for her work checking the constitution line by line to ensure it was appropriate for the Council. She added that appendix 4 summarised the issues identified through discussions from the Working Group and set out a series of recommendations arising from the Group for consideration as a means of improving the Council’s good governance.  If Cabinet were minded to approve the recommendations of the Working Group and the constitution in so far as they related to the Executive functions, then the constitution and guide could be implemented following approval by Full Council to take effect from 1 December 2022.

The Deputy Leader thanked the Group Manager, Legal and Democratic Services and the Monitoring Officer for the more simplistic way the constitution had been written, particularly the appendices.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the working group was a cross-party working group.

The Leader thanked the working group for their hard work and contributions.   

RESOLVED:        Cabinet

1. Approved the recommendations of the Democratic Services Working Group in so far as they related to the Executive functions (Appendix 4 of the report referred);

2. Approved the revised constitution (at Appendix 1) and constitution guide (Appendix 2 & 3) in relation to the Executive functions;

3. Noted that a report would be presented to Council on 19 October 2022 seeking approval to adopt the revised constitution and guide with effect from 1 December

2022.