Agenda item

Report of the Director of Legal and Governance

Nancy Barnard, Head of Governance, presented the report detailing decisions taken under urgency provisions within the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules (Article 11) and Access to Information Procedure Rules (Article 13) of the Council’s Constitution since 1 May 2023, and highlighted the following points:

(a)  The Council’s Constitution requires that decisions taken under urgency provisions within the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules (Article 11) and Access to Information Procedure Rules (Article 13) are reported to Full Council and the Standards and Governance Committee.

(b)  The call-in procedure set out in Article 11 of the Constitution does not apply where the decision taken is urgent. A decision is urgent if any delay likely to be caused by the call-in process would seriously prejudice the Council’s or the public’s interests. A decision can only be taken under this urgency provision if the Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee (or in the absence of the Chair, the Vice Chair; or in the absence of both, the Chief Executive) agrees that the proposed decision is reasonable in all circumstances and that the reasons for urgency are valid.

(c)  Where it is impractical to give at least five clear working days notice of the intention to take a Key Decision, that decision may only be made in accordance with the special urgency provisions set out in the Access to Information Procedure Rules (Article 13 of the Constitution). These special urgency provisions require agreement from the Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee (or in the absence of the Chair, the Lord Mayor as Chair of Council; or in the absence of both, the Sheriff as Vice Chair of Council) that the decision is urgent and cannot reasonably be deferred.

(d)  Since 1 May 2023 there have been four decisions taken under urgency provisions within the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules and no decisions taken under the special urgency provisions within the Access to Information Procedure Rules.

(e)  The agenda of every ordinary Council meeting includes a report informing  Council of any decisions taken under these urgency procedures since the previous report. These regular reports evidence a positive trend of a significant reduction in the use of urgency procedures since the adoption of the new Constitution in October 2021, and associated strengthened training and guidance for officers and councillors.

In the discussion which followed, the following points were made:

(f)  The Nottingham City Homes decisions requiring exemption from call-in were predominantly due to unfamiliarity with processes, but colleagues have been provided with training to address this.

(g)  The rent setting decision required exemption from call-in was due to requiring information from external partners, but checks will be done to ascertain whether the process can be changed in the future to allow for the call-in period to take place.

(h)  It is not unusual for grant funding applications to require use of urgency procedures due to the short timescales often given for acceptance. Decisions such as this are an appropriate use of the procedures.

Resolved to note

(1)  That four decisions have taken under urgency provisions within the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules (Article 11) of the Constitution since 1 May 2023.

(2)  That no decisions have been taken under the special urgency provisions within the Access to Information Procedure Rules (Article 13) of the Constitution since 1 May 2023.