The Democracy and Standards Committee met to discuss its terms of reference and work programme, and to re-establish the Constitutional Working Group. The committee approved the terms of reference and work programme, and voted to re-establish the Constitutional Working Group. The membership and chair of the Constitutional Working Group will be agreed outside of the meeting in consultation with the groups.

Constitutional Working Group

The committee voted to approve the revised terms of reference for the Constitutional Working Group, agree its membership for 2025/26, and agree a chair for 2025/26. The stated reason for the decision was:

To ensure a mechanism is established and maintained to keep the Council’s constitution and governance structure under review.

Ben Smith, Head of Democratic Services, explained that the Constitutional Working Group's primary responsibility was to assist the monitoring officer in keeping the council's constitution under review. The group is not a formal committee and is not open to the public. It is designed to include a small group of five members, with representation from the Conservative, Labour, and Green parties. Mr Smith confirmed that the group does not need to be politically balanced.

Councillor Emily Fedorowycz, who had previously been a member of the group, offered to remain on it, but was also open to other people taking part.

Councillor Simon Fairhall requested that the notes and action points of the working group be made available to other members and the public, suggesting that they be published in some form, even if it was just a note within a report.

It was agreed that the membership and chair of the working group would be agreed outside of the meeting in consultation with the groups.

Terms of Reference and Work Programme

The committee voted to note the terms of reference for the committee, as set out in Appendix A to the report.

Kamila Coulson-Patel, Director of Law and Governance, presented the report, highlighting the future work programme shown at Appendix B of the report. She noted that the agenda is intended to be agile to react to any changes in legislation, best practice, or common themes. She also stated that she would like to bring a DBS¹ report to the November meeting, together with a comprehensive review of the constitution for the meeting on 14 August.

Councillor Fairhall suggested that the committee review polling stations while things are fresh, as he had had a couple of councillors raise with him why certain venues are being used. Ms Coulson-Patel said she would be happy to feed that back to the elections manager and add that on.

Another councillor raised the issue of training for town and parish councils, and whether there would still be a parish forum. They suggested that the council should ask town and parish councils what sort of training they would like or feel they need. Councillor Fairhall noted that Northamshire Calc² have quite an extensive training programme as well, and suggested that support might be better through them rather than the council organising its own training.

Another councillor asked about the terms of reference referring to members of the group having completed relevant training, and what the plan was for that to ensure compliance with the terms of reference. Ms Coulson-Patel confirmed that the training had been undertaken, and that there was a specific training programme for hearing panels.

In response to Councillor Fairhall, Ms Coulson-Patel clarified that a subcommittee has to be politically balanced, but a working group does not.

Councillor Fairhall noted an error on page 10, 4.5, where the meeting date for 16 April was listed as 2pm instead of 7pm.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The committee approved the minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2025 as a correct record.