Agenda item

To consider a report on mechanisms to ensure that the revised constitution is concise and future-proof, and an approach to highlighting substantive changes to the constitution for consideration.

The Sub-Committee considered a report on mechanisms to ensure that the revised Constitution was concise, user-friendly and future-proof.

A key principle of the review had been to be concise, covering only those essential issues which needed to be in the formal Constitution and sign-posting to other documents and sources. The Sub-Committee considered an Advice Note by Bevan Brittan which explained in more detail how this would work in practice, including the use of ‘hyperlinking’ and the status and ownership of each hyperlinked document in the proposed revised Constitution. The Advice Note is attached as Appendix A to these minutes.

The Sub-Committee also considered a schedule of sections/documents to be taken out of the constitution and linked to it where appropriate. The schedule made suggestions for the appropriate ownership and review processes for each document. A number of questions had been highlighted in the Schedule for members’ consideration. The schedule is attached as Appendix B to these minutes.

Much feedback had been received on the most appropriate mechanism for highlighting changes from the existing Constitution to the new revised document, including a request for ‘tracked changes’ . Bevan Brittan had advised that the redrafted Constitution, whilst taking much of the content from the current one, was a significantly changed document, especially in terms of its layout. This had required a significant restructuring and editing of repetitious, superfluous or outdated content. As such, a large part of the New Constitution was essentially a new document, not an amended one, and the facility to ‘track all changes’ did not lend itself to this kind of rewrite It was difficult, if not impossible, to use the ‘tracked changes’ functionality within Microsoft Word and attempts to highlight these changes manually through notation, high-lighting, colour-coding or other methods often obscured rather than enlighten, when trying to review the new material. Such an approach could not therefore be recommended.

Bevan Brittan proposed instead to bring to the attention of Members the substantive areas of change within an Explanatory Note/Schedule of Substantive Changes.

The Sub-Committee had endorsed this approach at its meeting on 15^th September 2017 when it resolved that Officers be permitted to use their discretion (this to be exercised with caution) in bringing to the attention of the Sub Committee only matters of substance when constitutional changes are proposed. It was therefore proposed that offices would:

§  draw attention to all substantive changes (exercising caution) in the Explanatory Note (List of Substantive Changes);

§  provide printed copies of both the existing Constitution and the revised Constitution to any Member that requested them; and

§  highlight any specific changes (with page number references for both documents) as requested by Members on a case-by-case basis if these were not immediately apparent and/or incorporated within the Explanatory Note (List of Substantive Changes).

RESOLVED

That the Constitution Committee be recommended to approve:

1.    the overall proposed approach to hyperlinking as set out in the Bevan Brittan Advice Note (Appendix A to these minutes) subject to all hyperlinked documents being linked to the public website as well as the Intranet;

2.    that with regard to the specific questions raised in the schedule at Appendix B:

(a)  the terms of reference of committee chairmen be removed from the Constitution and be hyperlinked and the Constitution Committee retain responsibility for the document;

(b)  the Whistleblowing Policy be removed from the Constitution and be hyperlinked and ownership of the Policy remain with the Audit and Governance Committee;

(c)  the Planning Protocol of Conduct and the Protocol on Public Speaking Rights at planning committee meetings be removed from the Constitution and be hyperlinked and responsibility for the documents be passed to the Strategic Planning Board; and

(d)  the Local Ward Member Protocol be removed from the Constitution and be hyperlinked and responsibility for the document remain with the Constitution Committee;

3.    subject to resolution 2 above, the proposals set out in Appendix B, subject to the inclusion of a hyperlink to the Fire Authority website; and

4.    the approach to highlighting substantive changes to the Constitution to Members as set out above.