Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

(a)  To agree the minutes of the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities meeting held on 9^th March 2020

(b)  Matters arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2020 were agreed and signed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which reported on The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 which provides local authorities with the legal power to hold remote meetings in place of physically present meetings. The Regulations override any earlier legislation which requires elected members to be in the meeting venue in order to be classed as present and modify other legal requirements in connection with meetings such as being open to the public and the provision of online meeting papers only.  The Regulations are temporary, being in effect until 7 May 2021 unless extended.

There is no legal requirement for local authorities to update their meeting standing orders or procedure rules, but it is good practice for the Constitution to reflect how the Council is conducting its business. It is therefore proposed that the Temporary Procedure Rules set out in the Appendix to this report should be adopted by the Council.

The Rules are based on ones published by Lawyers in Local Government and the Association of Democratic Services Officers. The continuing need for these Rules will be reviewed regularly.

Regulation 5 of the 2020 Act allows local authorities to make other standing orders and any other rules governing the meeting about remote attendance at meetings.  This may include provision for—

(a) voting;

(b) member and public access to documents; and

(c) remote access of public and press to a local authority meeting to enable them to attend or participate in that meeting by electronic means, including by telephone conference, video conference, live webcasts, and live interactive streaming.

It was therefore proposed that the Temporary Procedure Rules set out in the Appendix to this report should be adopted by the Council. The new Rules may operate until 7 May 2021 and will be reviewed before then to ensure that they were still relevant. Once approved, the Rules will be published on the Council’s website.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities recommends to Council that it adopts the Temporary Procedure Rules set out in the Appendix to this report.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

To consider any other items of business which the Cabinet Member decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of public business.