The report of the City Solicitor is enclosed.

The Committee considered the report of the City Solicitor setting out proposed changes to the Council’s Constitution.

The report described the changes that had been made.

The Chair invited the Committee to comment and ask questions.

In response to a question raised on the proposed amendments to the regrading of posts, the Committee was assured that the changes would bring the Council in line with other core cities.

Decisions

To note the report and recommend that the Council agree the recommendations set out as follows:

1.    Adopt, subject to recommendation 5 below, the attached revised Sections of the Constitution of the Council, namely:

a)    Part 2

b)    Part 3: Sections, C and F

c)    Part 4: Sections A, B, C and F

d)    Part 5: Sections C, D and E

e)    Part 6: Sections B, C and E

f)     Part 8

2.    Make consequential and ancillary changes to other Parts of the Constitution to align with the changes set out in the report.

3.    Amend Part 4: Section E as detailed at Paragraph 4.5 of the report as follows:

It is proposed that the reference to “The Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency” is deleted from Rule 8A.1 of the Scrutiny Procedure Rules (Part 4 Section E). This is to reflect a change in the list of relevant partner authorities contained in section 104 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Heath Act 2007.

4.    Readopt the remainder of the Constitution

5.    Note in relation to Part 3 of the Constitution that responsibility for the discharge of executive functions and the delegation of such responsibility rests with the Leader of the Council and that the recommended delegations of executive functions set out in Part 3 (Sections A and F) are for the information of the Council only.