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present of the standards of behaviour and communication that we expect from each other. This is part of demonstrating how we all support the Nolan Principles of Public Life and the Council Members Code of Conduct within our Constitution. It is important that we are respectful and reasonable to one another. We may have disagreements about matters before and during the meeting, but that will not prevent us from being courteous and respectful. This is between councillors, between councillors and officers, and when we have any external visitors or members of the public. I will be expecting respect to be shown at all times, please. Questions and comments are to be made through the Chair also at all times. Thank you. OK, so the first order of business this afternoon. Do we have any apologies for absence at all, please? There are none, Chair. OK, thank you. Thank you. Do we have any declarations of interest at all? No. OK, thank you. Moving on to point three of the agenda, the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, the 6th of February, 2024. Has everybody read those and happy to agree them? Agreed. Thank you. OK, point four, the report of monitoring officer on proposed immediate changes to South End on C City Council Constitution, pages 5 to 66 of the pack. I understand that Councillor Cowan is going to introduce the report. Yes, thank you, Chair. I'm happy to introduce the report that's set out in front of you. This is a recommendation to consider a change, an amendment to the constitution, which we believe will align the council with common practice regarding the chairs and vice chairs of overview and scrutiny committees. The recommendations are set out in front of you to consider an amendment to the second sentence in part three, schedule two, paragraph five point one eight of the constitution to read as follows. The chairs and vice chairs shall be drawn from the members of the committee that set out in paragraph three point three one of the report. Also to consider an amendment to part four, the overview and scrutiny procedure rules, rule five regarding who chairs the scrutiny committee and also to agree that authority is delegated to the monitoring officer to make the agreed amendments and to amend any other associated provisions in the constitution. I believe that this is the correct step forward, considering some of the changes that have happened within the constitution over the last couple of years regarding scrutiny, which have led to scrutiny not operating in the way that members have fed back that they would like to see it work. We believe that this aligns us with the most common practice amongst local authorities out there at the moment, and that's why we are recommending to make this change. Thank you, Councillor Cowan. Does anyone have any questions at all regarding this? Councillor McMullan. Thank you, chair. It might be a question for the monitoring officer, obviously regarding the change in the wording. Just bear with me. I think it's five point one. If I'm not mistaken, just bear with me. Apologies when I find it. Where we say, yes, five point one membership fee scrutiny committee where the new wording in red would say chairs and vice chairs of scrutiny because we were drawn from among the Councillors sitting on the committee and rather than just opposition groups. Can I just ask, is it commonplace in most other councils that the wording would be as proposed to be amended? And also, if we were to be in a position with the current wording, if there were no opposition Councillors on the council, would there have to be a change to be made to the constitution in order to allow chairs and vice chair to be appointed? Thank you. Thank you. I, excuse me, I understand Councillor Cowan would like to answer that question. Yes, that's okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair. And thank you for the question, Councillor McMullan. So having looked at the constitutions of over 60 unitary authorities, the wording of this particular element of overview and scrutiny is unique to South End. And I think you raise a good point that there are many councils across the land where they are effectively a one party state where all of their members are drawn from one particular political party. And therefore it would be impossible for them to draw specifically from or only from opposition Councillors. If such a situation were ever to occur in South End, however likely we may think that may be, that would put us in a very difficult position. That is one of the reasons for realigning the constitution as we're setting out to ensure that in any eventuality that the council is able to perform an overview and scrutiny function and that Councillors can be made chairs and vice chairs. So just to clarify, the amended wording as proposed pretty much is going to bring us into line with the majority of other councils across the country. Thank you. Through you, chair. That's correct, Councillor McMullan. Yes, it will bring us in line with the wording. Some councils have very minor fluctuations in their wording on how chairs are chosen. Some of them are selected purely by members of the committee at the first meeting of the committee. Some of them are appointed by the council and some are appointed by the administration, but by and large, they are selected from from all members of the council or members of the committee rather than a specific subset. You got second question, Councillor McMullan? Yeah, thank you. Just regarding point two in the recommendations, which is for the monitoring officer to carry out a review of the whole of the constitution. Can I just ask, when was the last time I know that there was some... Sorry, Councillor McMullan, that's a separate one. My apologies, I'll come on to that. Thanks. Does anyone else have any further questions at all? Any comments? OK, right. We will then move on to... Yeah, so does the committee agree with the proposal? Yeah, thank you. Thank you. We can now move on to point five, which is the report of the monitoring officer requesting a review of the constitution. Councillor McMullan, I understand you have a question. Does anyone else? Oh, sorry. Would Councillor Gilbert like to present first? Introduce the report at all. Thank you. Thank you, chair, and apologies for my late arrival. I think, to be honest, the paper largely speaks for itself. Clearly, there was a significant amount of work done over the course of the past couple of years on certain sections of the constitution. But having considered this, considered a number of the issues which have and indeed disputes which have come to rise over the course of the last six months or so, I think that it is necessary and I know the monitoring officer concurs that we should actually be looking to review the constitution as a whole rather than piecemeal. And of course, the constitution with members tend to think of the constitution as being specifically the standing orders of meetings that relate to us and our role of members. But of course, the constitution is an awful lot more than that. Therefore, I do think that this piece of work is necessary and I look forward, I hope members will support it and I hope that we will be able to conclude it within the time window that we've got. Thank you, Councillor Gilbert. Does anybody have any questions? Councillor McMullan. Thank you, Chair. Through you, I think this may be a question for the monitoring officer. Could somebody advise when was the last time that we had a full review of the constitution, please? I appreciate there were some minor amendments made by this committee last year, but an actual full review. Yes, Councillor McMullan. As far as my records show, that was last done in 2021 and with the help of some external legal advice, but it wasn't taken through to its logical conclusion. So there was a review, but a new constitution was never put to members and it wasn't concluded as far as I know, but Councillor Cowan may know more. Yes, Councillor Cowan. Thank you, Chair, and I appreciate your indulgence. So I think to Councillor McMullan's point, the last time the constitution was reviewed in whole was when the authority came into existence as a unitary authority and separated from Essex County Council. So it's been a significantly long time. There have been some tweaks and amendments and additions over the years, but effectively what we are working with today is something that has been all patchworked over 20 plus years. Thank you, Councillor Cowan. Any further questions? Second question, please go ahead. Thank you, Chair. Just it might be a question for Councillor Gilbert or the monitoring officer. I think the intention is to have this work completed and a new constitution ready by the end of this year. Can I just ask you if that is a realistic ambition and we can expect to keep to that timetable? Thank you. Councillor Gilbert, are you able to answer that? Yeah, thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councillor McMullan. I think that the best advice we have at the moment, given that we intend to ask, given that we intend to ask for external assistance, is that that can be met. However, I've made it clear that I would rather take a little longer and do a thorough job so that we have something that's fit for the next decade or so. But I think in the past, you know, I won't say that things have been rushed. I don't think they have. But the piecemeal approach, I don't think has really worked. And I think we should not be, in my view, we shouldn't be afraid of taking our time if that's what's required. Thank you, Councillor Gilbert. Any further questions? Okay. Any other questions? Comments, please? Councillor McMullan. Thank you, Chair. Just a quick comment, really. I'm pleased that we're doing this. I'm pleased that we're having a full review of the constitution and bringing forward what sounds like something was written probably 25 plus years ago into the 21st century. And I'm also keen, I think there's a phrase in here where we said using plain English, thank you, which I would certainly encourage. I think that we do have a problem within this Council that we do occasionally revert to what I would describe as Council speak. And certainly I've had to decipher emails and letters that have been sent to residents before. So I think anything that we can do that we can make things in a nice, clear manner should be welcome. So I look forward to this review taking place. Thank you. That's lovely. And I agree with that. Thank you. Any further questions, comments at all? No. Okay. So is everyone happy and agree? And also, can I just ask whether everyone's in agreement for this to go through the standards committee? Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So would you like to sum up or would you like to sum up? I think, Chair, we're past that as the reports have been agreed. I just thank members of the committee for their support. Okay. Thank you. I think that's it then for this meeting. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.