The Constitution and Standards Committee met to discuss revisions to the council's constitution, and to answer questions from the public. The committee agreed to refer proposed amendments to the constitution, regarding financial regulations, to the full council for consideration and approval. The committee also agreed to send a question about minuting votes to the Governance Working Group for consideration.

Revisions to the Constitution

The Director of Law and Corporate Services (Monitoring Officer) presented a report to the committee, recommending revisions to the council's financial regulations. The revisions had previously been brought to the Governance Working Group.

The proposed changes aim to:

• Create a more consistent approach to financial thresholds.
• Update text to more clearly reflect permissions and treatment of budget virements¹.
• Ensure the fees and charges policy applies to all fees and charges, regardless of turnover.
• Update text relating to grant approvals to more accurately describe the approver and the approval route.

The report noted that the revisions were presented to the Finance Working Group in April 2025 and were re-presented to Governance Working Group in September 2025, when it was agreed to be referred to the Constitution and Standards Committee.

During the meeting, members discussed the delegation of transactional and budgetary limits, and it was confirmed that final decision-making remained with the Policy & Resources Committee. There was also discussion of the potential to allow for greater delegation to the Monitoring Officer to undertake amendments regarding the financial regulations, to allow for quicker changes to be made to financial figures to move in line with inflation.

The Director of Law and Corporate Services (Monitoring Officer) agreed to explore this matter, but noted that there would need to be measures in place to ensure that both officers and members had a good understanding of the financial regulations, and that more frequent changes could have a negative impact.

The committee voted to refer the proposed amendments to the constitution, as detailed in Appendix 1 of the Public Reports Pack, to the Full Council for consideration and approval at the next available meeting. Councillors Amanda Onwuemene, Tony Cox, Phil Gilchrist, Tom Laing, Gillian Wood, and Kaitlin Stuart voted in favour.

The revised financial regulations procedures can be found in Appendix 1 of the Public Reports Pack.

Public Questions

Mr Mark Fleming, on behalf of Wirral Reform, asked whether the committee could review the council's standing orders to consider minuting the names of members and how they voted when a vote was taken in committees. Mr Fleming argued this would allow for more openness and accountability regarding the publication of voting in the minutes.

Councillor Tony Cox, Chair of the Committee, explained that the style of minutes was a matter for local authorities to determine through their standing orders in their constitutions. He noted that minutes could also differ across committees and that the minutes of Full Council would differ to those of Licensing Panels due to the nature of their decisions.

Councillor Tony Cox, Chair of the Committee, referenced Council Standing Order 17.1, which states that:

Unless this Constitution provide[d] otherwise, any matter [would] be decided by a simple majority of those Members voting and present in the room and seated in their places at the time the question [was] put.

Councillor Tony Cox, Chair of the Committee, noted that there were opportunities for members to ask for votes to be recorded within the minutes, through a recorded vote, known colloquially as a card vote . He also mentioned that meetings were webcast, and this could support members of the public to watch back meetings and understand discussions and how members voted.

Councillor Tony Cox, Chair of the Committee, proposed that the matter would be brought to the Governance Working Group for consideration and discussion. He also referenced the rule of needing five members seconding a proposal to call for a recorded vote, and suggested that this could be looked into.

Mr Fleming also asked whether the council would consider an external review of the Councillors' Registers of Interest. Councillor Tony Cox, Chair of the Committee, responded that this topic had already been raised at the Governance Working Group, and that he had been discussing the matter with the Monitoring Officer for some time. The Monitoring Officer added that officers were undertaking this review, and they would consider the outcome and decide on progress.