Agenda item

The Leader presented a report detailing proposed changes to the Council’s constitution, including the Scheme of Delegations, for Members’ consideration.

Council was informed that there was a requirement, detailed in the constitution, for Members to review the Scheme of Delegations at the Annual Council meeting.  This included proposed updates to the Scheme of Delegations to reflect changes to job titles and legislation since the last Annual Council meeting.  There were some additional delegations proposed for Community Services, in relation to CCTV and Lifeline, climate change and the operation of BURT and Shopmobility services. Many of the changes had been considered and proposed at a meeting of the Constitution Review Working Group held on 28^th April 2026.

The report also detailed proposed changes to the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules.  The Council’s existing Contract Procedure Rules had been adopted in 2016 and were set in EU procurement law, (based on the Public Contract Regulations 2015).  Things had moved on since then, with the implementation of the Procurement Act 2023 into UK law in 2025.  The Council’s Contract Procedure Rules were being updated as a consequence of this.  The report set out the key changes that had been made to the rules. These changes were all to ensure compliance with the Procurement Act. The updated rules had already been signed off by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and the Constitution Review Working Group.

The report contained information about Members’ eligibility to join the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).  This eligibility for Members was reintroduced by the Government in May 2026.  Participation in the LGPS was on an opt in basis, so any Members who were interested in joining the LGPS were advised to contact the Financial Services team.  The Government’s announcement on Members’ eligibility to join the LGPS and the start date for joining had been issued after the Council had approved the Scheme of Members’ Allowances 2026/27 and the Council therefore needed to update the scheme to reflect this entitlement.

Council was asked to note that there was a proposal for the size of the Shareholders Committee to increase from 4 to 5 members.  This would make it easier to convene meetings of the Committee during the year.

Finally, Members were asked to note that an additional recommendation had been proposed since the publication of the main agenda pack.  This requested changes to the Committee Terms of Reference and Procedure Rules for the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee to reflect the role of the Committee in consideration of the Statement of Accounts and Treasury Management Strategy.

After the report had been presented, Members discussed the titles that had been used in the Scheme of Delegations and Finance Procedure Rules to refer to the Section 151 Officer and Chief Finance Officer and the reason why both titles had been used in addition to the job title of Director of Finance.  Members were informed that Director of Finance was the Officer’s official job title at the Council but he was the Council’s Section 151 Officer, which was a statutory post often referred to within Local Government as Chief Finance Officer.  As this was the Director of Finance’s first Council meeting since he commenced employment with the Council, Members welcomed him to the meeting.

Consideration was given to the content of the Scheme of Delegations, specifically the reference to Section 106 monies and questions were raised about the reasons why separate figures of £15,000, £50,000 and £200,000 were referred to in different places.  Officers clarified that the limit should have been recorded as £200,000 to reflect the Council’s key decision threshold and this typographical error would be corrected after the Annual Council meeting.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor K. May and seconded by Councillor S. Baxter.

RESOLVED that

1)          The current version of the Scheme of Delegations be adopted;

2)          The proposed new delegations for Community Services be approved;

3)          The updated Contract Procedure Rules be approved;

4)          The updated Financial Procedure Rules be approved;

5)          An update to the Scheme of Members’ Allowances 2026/27, to incorporate reference to Members’ eligibility to join the Local Government Pension Scheme be approved; and

6)          The Committee Terms of Reference for the Shareholders Committee be updated to reflect the proposed membership of 5 rather than 4 members on the Committee.