At the full Council meeting held on 19 March 2014 the following resolution was passed:
This Council notes the increasing number of questions submitted to Council and Cabinet meetings. There have been close to 100 questions submitted to the last two Council meetings alone.
The impact on the work of Cabinet Members and senior officers who prepare responses is of serious concern when they should be working on behalf of council taxpayers to deliver quality services to the residents of Gloucestershire.
The Constitution Committee should therefore be asked to consider making a recommendation to the Council that the current rules relating to member questions be amended to ensure that a question is only answered at Council or Cabinet if a member has previously submitted it in writing to the relevant Cabinet Member and, in the opinion of the member, a satisfactory response has not been received within 10 working days.
The Committee to consider appropriate changes to the Constitution and, if necessary, make a recommendation to full Council.
Minutes:
At the full Council meeting held on 19 March 2014, the following resolution was passed:
This Council notes the increasing number of questions submitted to Council and Cabinet meetings. There have been close to 100 questions submitted to the last two Council meetings alone.
The impact on the work of Cabinet members and senior officers who prepare responses is of serious concern when they should be working on behalf of council taxpayers to deliver quality services to the residents of Gloucestershire.
The Constitution Committee should therefore be asked to consider making a recommendation to the Council that the current rules relating to member questions be amended to ensure that a question is only answered at Council or Cabinet if a member has previously submitted it in writing to the relevant Cabinet member and, in the opinion of the member, a satisfactory response has not been received within 10 working days.
Cllr Richard Leppington who was in attendance on behalf of Cllr Colin Guyton, the mover of the original motion, said that the UKIP Group were concerned at the amount of time taken at the start of full Council meetings in dealing with member questions. He said that his group were supportive of a compromise whereby member questions at full Council meetings were considered after motions rather than near the start of meetings. He was anxious, however, that this was reviewed after a suitable period.
A member spoke strongly against the original motion and believed that it would lead to duplication and result in extra work for Cabinet members and officers. He was not supportive of moving questions to later on the Council agenda as he felt that it was appropriate that they were asked at the start of the meeting. He supported a suggestion that extra time should be provided at the end of the meeting to allow member question time to be completed if this was not possible during the 30 minutes at the start of the meeting.
Another member stated that there might be unintended consequences of moving member questions to later in the meeting. She said that members might submit more questions because of concerns that they might not be present later in the meeting to ask supplementary questions. She also believed that it was right for member questions to be considered at the start of the meeting when the public were more likely to be present.
A number of members supported the proposal for member questions to be considered after motions. They noted that motions were the most important part of Council meetings and the proposal would mean that they would be considered earlier. By moving member questions towards the end of the agenda, members with other commitments could leave the meeting having still had the opportunity to debate the motions.
RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND TO THE COUNCIL that
a) Procedural standing order 2.1 in part 4 of the Constitution (page 79) relating to the order of business at full Council meetings be amended so that member questions are considered immediately following motions.
b) This change be reviewed by the Constitution Committee after three full Council meetings.