The Head of Law and Governance (Monitoring Officer) has submitted a report which seeks Council’s agreement to amend the Constitution to reflect changes to the Contract Rules.

Recommendation: Council is recommended to:

1.    To approve the amendments to

a.    The Contract Rules as attached at Appendix One

b.    Part 4.4 (Publication of Officer Decisions) as set out at paragraph 10;

c.     Part 15.4 (Key Decisions) as set out at paragraph 16;

d.    Part 4.5 (Decisions that must be agreed by Cabinet) as set out at paragraph 17;

e.    The Financial Rules as set out at paragraph 18.

2.    To delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer to make any other consequential amendments to the Constitution to reflect the above changes to the extent that they have not been identified in the above, provided such changes are purely required as a direct consequence.

The Head of Law and Governance (Monitoring Officer) had submitted a report which sought Council’s agreement to amend the Constitution to reflect changes to the Contract Rules.

Councillor Brown presented the report. She noted that the report’s recommendations bring the constitution in line with current legislation and address matters regarding different delegations in relation to financial matters.

Councillor Smowton flagged a concern that the recommendations and report had been amended at the last minute, just before the meeting. He said that there is concern that this was changed last minute and said that there are still some problems that need to be resolved. He noted that the delegated powers will need to be used to fix these issues after the meeting.

The Head of Law and Governance confirmed that typographical and wording amendments can be made using the delegated powers. However, any substantial changes would have to come back to a future meeting of Council.

Councillor Brown moved for the report to be voted upon. Following a second from Councillor Henwood, the recommendations were voted upon and approved.

Council resolved to:

Approve the updated Contract Rules and other changes consequential to them.