Cheshire Police and Crime Panel

Date of Meeting: 23 September 2016

Report of: Head of Governance and Democratic Services

Subject: The Panel’s Rules of Procedure

Report Summary

At its June meeting, the Panel called for a review of the existing Rules of Procedure.

This report will enable the Panel to adopt amended Rules.

Recommendations

That the Panel:

consider the proposed changes to the Rules, as shown on the appended document, and approve them;

delegate authority to the Head of Governance and Democratic Services to make such minor and consequential amendments to the Rules as he considers are necessary to give effect to the wishes of the Panel, and to make further appropriate minor and consequential amendments to the Rules, in order to finalise the Rules,.

Background information

3.1	The appended Rules of Procedure were developed and approved in the early stages of the life of the Panel, and have proved to be fit for purpose in respect of the Panel’s business.

3.2	Given that the hosting of the Panel has now moved to Cheshire East Council, a number of changes were required to be made to the Rules to reflect the new hosting arrangements.

3.3	In addition, comment was made at the Panel’s Annual General Meeting in June 2016 that changes should also be made to the Rules by way of confirmation that Chairmanship and Vice Chairmanship of the Panel should be open to all members of the Panel, rather than being restricted to elected Members.

3.4	A review of the Rules has been undertaken and proposed changes have been made, which are highlighted using “track-changes”.

3.5	The Panel is asked to consider the proposed changes and to approve them if it is content to do so.

3.6	Delegated authority is also sought by the report author which will enable him to make minor or consequential amendments to the Rules, to give effect to the wishes of the Panel, or otherwise.

3.7	At the 2016 Annual General Meeting, comment was also made that consideration should be given to whether allowances should be given to Panel members. Currently, Panel members are entitled to claim expenses.

3.8	At the time of writing this report, further legal clarification is needed on this point. It is possible that the payment of allowances, akin to Special Responsibility Allowances to some or all Panel members, would have to be provided for in each constituent authority’s Scheme of Member Allowances. This would require a report of the Independent Remuneration Panel of each authority, and agreement by all constituent authorities. Even then, it would seem that this could not allow for payment of allowances to the independent members, given that Schemes of Member Allowances can only provide for allowances paid to elected Members.

4. Financial Implications

Subject to the issue of payment of allowances, there are no financial implications. If allowances were to be paid, these would have to be met by each constituent authority.

Equality Implications

There would appear to be no direct equality implications arising from the recommendations of this report.

Contact Information

Contact details for this report are as follows:-

Name:	Brian Reed

Designation:	Head of Governance and Democratic Services

Local Authority:	Cheshire East Council

Tel. No.:	01270 686670

Email:	brian.reed@cheshireeast.gov.uk