Agenda item

With reference to Article 10 of the minute of its meeting of 16 April 2025, the Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Governance which met the instruction to report back with further proposed revisions concerning meeting structure as well as motions and amendments for requisitioned meetings.

The report also proposed changes to the Terms of Reference to align all procurement reporting through the Finance and Resources Committee, provided assurance in relation to the Council’s Local Code of Governance following revision of guidance for local authorities, and sought an instruction in response to recommendations made by Audit Scotland in the annual audit report.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(1)           consider the options, including purposes, risks and mitigations, set out in Appendix A;

(2)           determine which, if any, of these options to implement;

(3)           instruct the Chief Officer - Governance to make:

(i)             any amendments to the Standing Orders which are necessary to implement the determination made under recommendation (2), and

(ii)            any amendments to other Scheme of Governance documents which are necessary to reflect the Standing Orders as so amended;

(4)           delegate power to the Chief Officer - Governance to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, bring the Standing Orders (and any other Scheme of Governance documents) as so amended into force on 10 August 2025 prior to the next Council meeting; and instruct that Chief Officer to thereafter circulate the relevant documents (with tracked changes) to all members of Council for information;

(5)           approve that, with effect from 3 July 2025, the Terms of Reference be amended by deletion of:

(i)             “to approve annual procurement workplans, reflecting the LOIP, the Population Needs Assessment, the Council’s commissioning intentions, the Council’s service standards, the views of customers and citizens, and the best evidence of effective interventions to ensure a preventative focus on demand reduction”; and

(ii)       “to receive an annual procurement performance report to enable scrutiny of performance”;

from the Aberdeen City Council section of that document and addition of that wording to the Finance and Resources Committee section thereof; instruct the Chief Officer - Governance to make any other amendments to Scheme of Governance documents which are necessary to reflect the said amendments to the Terms of Reference and delegate power to that Chief Officer to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, bring such other amendments into force as soon as practicable; and instruct that Chief Officer to thereafter circulate the relevant documents (with tracked changes) to all members of Council for information;

(6)           for the reasons set out in the “Scheme of Governance Reviews” section of this report, agree that no further reviews of the Standing Orders and Terms of Reference shall take place before the next local government elections in 2027, subject of course to exercise of the Chief Officer - Governance’s existing delegated powers (under the Scheme of Governance) to amend the Council’s Scheme of Governance documentation and subject also to that Chief Officer concluding that an earlier review is necessary;

(7)           instruct the Chief Officer - Governance, to give consideration to the two Audit Scotland recommendations noted in paragraph 3.13 and to provide a service update to Council by December 2025; and

(8)           note that the interim Chief Officer - Governance has reviewed the revised CIPFA guidance for local authorities on their Local Code of Governance; and agrees that no further changes are required to the Council’s Local Code to give effect to this guidance at this time.

Councillor Radley moved, seconded by Councillor Greig:-

          That the Council -

(1)           agree to implement option 5 as per Appendix A (7 minutes to move, 4 minutes to second, 3 minutes to speak in debate and 4 minutes to sum up) to be applied to Council and all committees and sub-committees of the Council and amend SO16.1 to reference 3 minutes in line with Councillors speaking in debate;

(2)           agree to implement option 11: Draft motion to be submitted at the same time as the written request, and finalised on the first working day thereafter and circulated to Council by 4pm that day. Draft amendments to be submitted on or before the second working day before  the meeting and circulated by 4pm on the working day before the meeting;

(3)           instruct the Chief Officer - Governance to make:

(i) any amendments to the Standing Orders which are necessary to implement the determination made under (2) above, and

(ii) any amendments to other Scheme of Governance documents which are necessary to reflect the Standing Orders as so amended;

(4)           delegate power to the Chief Officer - Governance to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, bring the Standing Orders (and any other Scheme of Governance documents) as so amended into force on 9 July 2025;

and instruct that Chief Officer to thereafter circulate the relevant documents (with tracked changes) to all members of Council for information;

(5)           approve that, with effect from 3 July 2025, the Terms of Reference be amended by deletion of:

(i) “to approve annual procurement workplans, reflecting the LOIP, the Population Needs Assessment, the Council’s commissioning intentions, the Council’s service standards, the views of customers and citizens, and the best evidence of effective interventions to ensure a preventative focus on demand reduction”; and

(ii) “to receive an annual procurement performance report to enable scrutiny of performance”;

from the Aberdeen City Council section of that document and addition of that wording to the Finance and Resources Committee section thereof; instruct the Chief Officer - Governance to make any other amendments to Scheme of Governance documents which are necessary to reflect the said amendments to the Terms of Reference and delegate power to that Chief Officer to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, bring such other amendments into force as soon as practicable; and instruct that Chief Officer to thereafter circulate the relevant documents (with tracked changes) to all members of Council for information;

(6)           for the reasons set out in the “Scheme of Governance Reviews” section of this report, agree that no further reviews of the Standing Orders and Terms of Reference shall take place before the next local government elections in 2027, subject of course to exercise of the Chief Officer - Governance’s existing delegated powers (under the Scheme of Governance) to amend the Council’s Scheme of Governance documentation and subject also to that Chief Officer concluding that an earlier review is necessary;

(7)           instruct the Chief Officer - Governance, to give consideration to the two Audit Scotland recommendations noted in paragraph 3.13 and to provide a service update to Council by December 2025; and

(8)           note that the interim Chief Officer - Governance has reviewed the revised CIPFA guidance for local authorities on their Local Code of Governance; and agrees that no further changes are required to the Council’s Local Code to give effect to this guidance at this time.

Councillor Blake moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Watson:-

          That the Council -

(1)       note the reality of the situation for Opposition Members, Council papers are out on Tuesday 5pm (for a meeting on Wednesday of the following week), deadline for amendments is Monday 12 noon, reports for agenda may be over 1,000 pages giving Opposition members only 3 clear working days to read reports and bring forward amendments;

(2)       note the report and accept recommendations 5, 7 subject to the words “service update” being replaced by “report” and 8;

(3)       agree recommendation 6 has been overtaken by events given the Scheme of Governance will require changing following the acceptance of the amendment to recommendations put forward by the SNP at Urgent Business Committee on 26 June 2025 given the completion date outlined in the report is 31^st March 2026 which is before the next Council Election;

(4)       agree that on numerous occasions the opposition parties tried to amend the Powers Delegated to Officers picking up on the point raised by Audit Scotland relating to delegated matters deemed to be politically sensitive but each time this was rejected by the SNP; and

(5)       agree to take no action in respect of all other proposals at this time.

On a division, there voted:-

For the motion  (23)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Alphonse, Buchanan, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Davidson, Fairfull, Greig, Henrickson, Hutchison, MacGregor, McLellan, McRae, Mennie, Radley, van Sweeden and Yuill.

For the amendment   (21)  -  Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Boulton, Brooks, Crockett, Cross, Farquhar, Graham, Grant, Houghton, Kusznir, Lawrence, Macdonald, McLeod, Malik, Massey, Nicoll, Thomson, Tissera and Watson.

The Council resolved:-

to adopt the motion.