Background and Key Principles of the Modernisation Legislation

Introduction
The Constitution
The Full Council and Members' Roles
Overview and Scrutiny Under Executive Arrangements
The Executive
Responsibility for Functions
Other Council Structures
Accountability Decision Making
Officers' Roles
Petitions
Referendums
Election of a Mayor
Changing the Arrangements

Introduction

Local authorities, in partnership with Government, business, the voluntary sector and others, have a vital role to play in improving the quality of people's lives, providing vision and leadership for their communities, and delivering high quality services.

The White Paper Modern Local Government: In Touch with the People put in place a radical ten-year programme for the reform and modernisation of local government in England which sits at the heart of the Government's plans to modernise Britain.

• It requires action by Government to put in place the framework for modernisation and, in partnership with local government, actively to motivate and manage the process of change.

• It equally requires action by every local authority, its councillors and employees. to find new ways of working which put its people and its communities first. In all they do local authorities need to be, and demonstrate that they are, efficient, transparent and accountable.

• This programme of change is now underway. Since April 2000, best value has been a reality. The Local Government Act 2000 provides new powers for local authorities to promote the economic, social and environmental well being of their area; a duty to develop Community Strategies; and establishes a new ethical framework for local government.

• The Act also gives the public a real say in how they are governed and makes available to local authorities new constitutions which will deliver identifiable, accountable, corporate leadership for a local authority and the community it serves and provide efficient, transparent and accountable decision making

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The Constitution

All local authorities must have a written constitution.

• The constitution, and other documents referred to in it, should set out everything anyone who has dealings with the local authority would need to know about how the local authority conducts its business, who takes which decisions and how to work with the local authority

In particular this constitution must include:-

• information about the Council, its Committees and staff and arrangements for decision making

• information about the discharge of council functions

• Standing Orders - how the Council conducts its business internally

• the Code of Conduct for Members - the rules and standards which Members must observe

• any other information as the authority considers appropriate

Copies of the constitution must be made available at the Council's principal office for inspection by the public at all reasonable times. Councils are expected to generally make the constitution widely available, for example on the website.

The Council's constitution should include information with respect to details of arrangements for the executive (i.e. where most decisions are taken) for scrutiny (where decisions and policies are reviewed) and for the discharge of non executive functions (which are largely regulatory in nature). These are explained later in this document. There will be local discretion on a local authority to include other elements of interest and relevance to the local community.

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The Full Council and Members' Roles

• There are varied and powerful roles for all councillors, as representatives of the local community, as members of the full council, overview and scrutiny committees or the executive, and other committees.

• The full council sets the budget and local authority's policy framework.

• There must be a mechanism for resolving conflict between the executive and the full council about the budget and policy framework.

There are significant functions to be discharged by the full council (i.e. all the members acting together at a meeting). These are:

• appointment of the leader (and subject to local choice the cabinet)

• appointment of committees to deal with non-executive functions

• appointment of council manager (if this is the opted form of constitution)

• setting the council's budget

• the adoption of specified plans and arrangements of the council i.e. the policy framework

• agreeing the council's Code of Conduct

• agreeing council's allowance scheme

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The budgetary and policy framework requires the council's budget and taxation levels to be determined by the full council. Also a significant number of statutory plans and strategies must also be adopted. These are:

The council can decide that certain other plans or strategies can be added to the above list as part of the remit of full council. Examples might be:

• plans comprising Housing Investment Programme

• Local Agenda 21 strategy

• Quality Protection Action Plan

• Corporate Plan

• Food Law Enforcement Service Plan

• Lifelong learning development plan

If the executive wishes to determine a matter not in accordance with policies adopted by full council, then that decision must be taken by the full council only. Accordingly, the policy framework adopted by the council sets out the policies which the executive must implement and the framework within which they must operate. The executive under a new constitution will propose a draft budget or planned strategy or other policy arrangement to the full council for adoption. The full council then either agrees the draft plan or budget or sends it back to the executive for amendment or amends it itself. Within this basic outline is a matter of local choice for each council to determine the details of this process. In developing the budget and formulating policy the executive is responsible for any necessary consultation. The guidance anticipates that in doing this the executive would consult at an early stage the relevant scrutiny and other committees of the council as appropriate. In many cases consultation will involve working in partnership with others who have joint responsibility for the preparation of plans and strategies.

The Roles of All Councillors

Additionally, all councillors will represent their ward constituencies under the new constitution and this is given high priority. All councillors will play an important role in consulting their communities on development of council policy, reviews and best value and so forth. All councillors will be able to sit on non executive committees dealing with planning, licensing and environmental issues. Additionally, all councillors will be able to sit on area committees or forums if any are set up and on partnerships and outside bodies. Councillors outside the executive will be able to sit on overview and scrutiny committees.

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Overview and Scrutiny Under Executive Arrangements

• Overview and scrutiny committees have varied and powerful roles in:

i. policy development and review;

ii. publicly holding the executive to account; and

iii. examining matters of wider local concern.

• Overview and scrutiny committees need to have effective support from officers.

The legislation requires councils to appoint at least one overview and scrutiny committee. However, much is left to local choice provided this requirement is met. The government sees such committees as playing a key element in new constitutions. They are seen as the main way by which the executive is held to account for the discharge of executive functions. Such committees as well as scrutinising individual decisions of the executive are also identified to play an important role in reviewing policies of the council and making recommendations on the future policy options.

Scrutiny committees will count as ordinary committees under current legislation i.e., their membership must be politically balanced and must have agendas in advance of meetings and the meetings must be held in public save where confidential information is involved.

Members of the executive cannot be members of scrutiny committees. Scrutiny committees can co-opt non councillors but they cannot have voting rights. Scrutiny committees can require members of the executive and officers to attend meetings and answer questions much in the way of select committee meetings in Parliament.

The key function of scrutiny committee is to hold the executive to account. This can involve scrutinising executive decisions before they are implemented (a calling-in mechanism) and/or scrutiny of decisions after they have been implemented as part of a review process. New constitutions must allow a mechanism whereby every executive decision is capable of being scrutinised.

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Accordingly the legislation allows councils to put in place calling-in mechanisms as part of the scrutiny process. However, there is no requirement for such mechanisms and whether they are included or not is a matter of local choice. The council has to identify the right balance between effectively holding the executive to account, being able to question decisions before they are implemented and allowing effective and efficient decision making by the executive within the policy framework and budget agreed by council.

The legislation allows a scrutiny committee either to ask the decision maker i.e., the executive, to reconsider a decision or to refer the matter to the full council to see if it wishes the decision to be reconsidered. A decision can only be reconsidered once under the legislation. An example of a calling-in mechanism is where the executive publishes its decisions whether made at a full executive meeting or by an individual portfolio member of the Cabinet under which decisions will not come into force for five working days, in which time specified number of members of the scrutiny committee can instigate a calling-in mechanism for the matter to be referred to scrutiny for consideration.

However, there are dangers of any calling-in procedure being abused or used on a political level to delay decisions, for inappropriate reasons. It recognises that the executive must be able to take decisions on an urgent basis when required. Accordingly, if councils do have a calling-in procedure then there should be special provision for that not to apply where urgent decisions are necessary.

Scrutiny committees have a role to play to hold general policy reviews and to make recommendations either to the executive or full council and to assist the development of future policies and strategies. The ability of scrutiny committees to co-opt non members as part of a policy review will allow key stakeholders in the local community and other local public and voluntary organisations to assist the scrutiny committee in its work. Scrutiny committees role in policy reviews and involving stakeholders in decision making could consist of a number of different approaches:-

• it could include a role of scrutiny committees gathering information and making recommendations to the executive before the policy is implemented.

• it could involve scrutiny of decision after implementation to examine their effect and outcomes

• it could take the form of wide ranging reviews of policy with or without consent of the executive

Scrutiny committees can also carry out reviews and make recommendations in relation to matters which are not the direct responsibility of the council but which affect the economic, environmental and social well-being of the area framework.

The guidance stresses that councils need to give careful consideration to their scrutiny arrangements. It puts forward the proposition that all or some of the committees could be chaired by members outside the ruling group for example. Scrutiny committees should be constructive and not merely there to oppose executive or rubber stamp executive decisions.

Membership of scrutiny committees should be such as to ensure the presence of particular skills and expertise to carry out thorough and informed reviews. Added value can be given by co-opting non members onto scrutiny as necessary. The guidance also refers to the concerns of opposition members and that any member of a committee should be able to ensure that an item is considered at the meeting and that chairs of scrutiny committees should have good reasons before ruling an item off an agenda.

Church and parent governor representatives have rights in terms of when any committee deals with educational matters. Whilst co-opted members cannot vote on scrutiny committees one exception relates to church and parent governor representatives. However, the ability to vote of such co-optees only relates to those matters which directly relate to functions on the local authority in its capacity as local education authority.

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The Executive

The executive is responsible for proposing the policy framework and budget to full council and for implementing the local authority's policy framework.

• Decisions implementing the council's policy framework and budget can be taken collectively by the executive or delegated to individual members of the executive, officers or committees of the executive.

• As the leadership for the local authority the executive should be the focus for community planning and should lead the search for best value.

• consult, engage and focus with other partners both internal such as Scrutiny and Council, but external as well, with other local public bodies, private, voluntary and community sectors.

A local authority executive must take one of three forms:

• an elected mayor with cabinet of other members

• an executive leader elected by the council with a cabinet appointed either by the council or by the Leader

• an elected mayor with an officer appointed by the council (known as the Council Manager)

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Whichever form of executive is chosen councils are required to incorporate into their standing orders mechanisms for resolving disputes between the executive and the council.

An executive is not able to have substitute or deputy members. If a member of the executive who has delegated functions is absent for any reason then the council constitution needs to incorporate arrangements for those delegations to be dealt with by the whole executive or another member of the executive. Additionally, the executive is unable to formally co-opt others onto it although it is able to consult with whoever it thinks fit. The executive is allowed to delegate widely to officers. Executives will not be able to achieve efficient decision making if it gets bogged down in a large amount of detailed low level operational issues.

The executive may under an agreed scheme of delegation contract out delegated functions to areas committee, joint committees or to other authorities. Where the executive does exercise delegation to officers or elsewhere the function still remains the responsibility of the executive which will still be expected to account for that function to scrutiny committee.

Members of the cabinet who hold portfolios i.e. areas of responsibility will be able to take individual decisions in their own right. This is not possible under current legislation. Accordingly, it will be important for the executive to carefully consider issues of legal responsibility to ensure clarity on what individual cabinet members can or cannot do. This can be aided by protocols which ensure individual executive members consult specified officers before or as part of exercising their delegated powers. In exercising delegated powers individual cabinet members will therefore be subject to public scrutiny by the overview and scrutiny committees. Overview and scrutiny committees will be able to call him or her before them to answer questions about decisions he or she have taken.

The leader in the leader cabinet form of constitution is appointed and therefore can be dismissed by full council. However, under the other two forms of constitution involving a directly elected mayor, council is unable to take the same action of dismissal. The elected mayor therefore, once elected, is in office until discharged through the ballot box. However, the elected mayor will have the status of councillor and be subject to the same rules of conduct as other councillors and of course sanctions.

Mayor and Cabinet

This form of constitution can only come into place after the council has held a referendum. A councillor elected to head such a form of executive has to be called the mayor. Under this arrangement the mayor chooses the size of cabinet which must consist of minimum of 2 and maximum 9 other councillors. Neither the chairman nor vice chairman of the authority can be a member of the executive and executive members cannot sit on scrutiny committees. In choosing the cabinet the mayor has a free hand. Likewise the mayor will have a free hand in deciding how delegation within and from the executive will work. Thus the mayor can delegate certain functions to individual portfolio members, can decide to set up committees of the executive, can delegate functions to area committees or to a joint committee or to another local authority or to contract out certain functions. In doing this the mayor will be able to place restrictions on any delegations granted. The mayor at any time can override the scheme of delegation and exercise functions him or herself. Once the scheme of delegation has been decided by the mayor it has to be made public as part of the statutory constitution.

The mayor will be elected on clear manifesto commitments and accordingly, the cabinet will be charged with delivery of those. Hence the guidance anticipates the mayor to have tight control over the membership of the cabinet with ability to appoint or dismiss cabinet members and to determine which members of the executive should give evidence before scrutiny committees. The executive will be responsible for most council functions and for preparatory work of policy framework matters and the budget which require approval by council. The title of mayor can only be used by the elected mayor. Where there is a ceremonial mayor because of a royal charter or borough status, then the elected mayor can elect to do those duties or more likely hand them over to another member such as a chairman. Clearly the ceremonial mayor is not to be confused with the elected mayor.

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Leader and Cabinet

Under this constitution the leader is an elected member of the Council who is appointed and therefore can be removed by the full council. It is a matter for the council to set out in its new constitution how exactly the arrangements for the appointment of the cabinet should work. Either the leader will be given a free hand to decide on the size and membership of the cabinet much in the way as a directly elected mayor. This would involve the leader being given powers similar to the elected mayor to decide the extent of delegations within and from the executive. Alternatively, full council decides the size and composition of the executive and sets out the scheme of delegation. Under either option the cabinet cannot be less than three nor more than ten councillors. The government recommends that the constitution contains arrangements appointing the leader and or other cabinet members for a fixed term, possibly linked to a change in control of the authority to ensure effective leadership and avoid the possibility of constant change. Decisions would be taken by the Leader and/or by members of the Cabinet who would hold portfolios either in an individual or collective basis

Mayor and Council Manager

Again before a council can adopt this it must first hold and win a referendum. The councillor elected to head such an executive must be called the mayor and the purpose of this form of constitution is to achieve a clear separation between policy development (for the mayor and council) and implementation of policy (by the council manager). Under the arrangement the council as a whole appoints an officer - the council manager - to the executive. The elected mayor gives broad policy steer to the council manager in line with his or her manifesto commitments and the policy framework which is agreed by the council. But all day to day decisions are the responsibility of the council manager. The council manager cannot be the monitoring officer or the chief finance officer and is appointed by and responsible to the full council. As such the council manager should not be able to veto council decisions although this power would be available to the directly elected mayor.

The council manager has a right to attend and speak but not vote at all meetings of the council except overview and scrutiny. At overview and scrutiny committees, he or she will not be allowed to speak unless invited. However, an overview and scrutiny committee can require the council manager to attend to answer questions as part of its function. In normal circumstances the council manager would he the head of paid service and chief executive.

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Responsibility for Functions

• The broad approach is that:

i. the full council sets the budget and policy framework;

ii. the executive implements that budget and policy framework;

iii. "quasi-judicial" functions (including licensing and development control) may not be matters for the executive - they can be for the full council, committees, sub-committees or officers.

• The legislation provides for functions to be allocated between the executive and the council. For this purpose functions are classified as:

i. functions which must not the responsibility of the executive;

ii. functions which must be the responsibility of the executive;

iii. functions which the local authority can decide whether they are to be the responsibility of the executive; and

iv. functions which are shared between the council and the executive.

Generally functions of an authority which are not required by legislation to be discharged by the full council are to be the responsibility of the executive.

The legislation sets out these "non executive" functions. These functions therefore remain with the full council which can delegate responsibility for them to either committees or officers. These are:-

Planning and Development Control

The development plan will form part of the council's policy framework. However, the executive will be responsible for formulating the development plan and any necessary consultations, particularly with any committee which takes development control decisions as well as overview and scrutiny committees. Development control decisions cannot be the responsibility of the executive. Also other specific planning functions are reserved to council to delegate as appropriate other than to the executive. Normally this would be to a specially dedicated planning committee.

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Licensing, Registration Functions and Health and Safety at Work

All local authority licensing and registration functions are not to be the responsibility of the executive. Accordingly, these are functions retained by council to delegate. The Government considers a single licensing committee would be appropriate in most authorities to deal with these functions. Additionally, the local authorities functions in respect of the licensing of births, death and marriages, health and safety at work functions and other licensing functions.

Environment Protection

Regulatory functions in respect of the control of pollution, statutory nuisances and other environmental protection functions cannot be the responsibility of the executive.

Electoral Functions, Byelaws, Pension

Elections, the making of byelaws in the area, the administration of the local government pension scheme and certain other related functions are not to be the responsibility of the executive.

Appointments

The regulations require that the executive is responsible for making appointments to any body outside the council in connection with the discharge of executive functions. The executive can delegate the function of making appointments as it considers appropriate.

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Local Choice Functions

Councils can decide when drawing up their new constitution whether the following functions are to be executive functions or not:-

• functions conferred by local acts
• determination of appeals against decision made by the authority
• making arrangements for the determination of appeals relating to school admissions
• making arrangements for questions to be answered on police matters at council meetings
• making appointments of members to police authorities
• conducting best value reviews under section 5 of the Local Government Act 1999.

If the council decide that these functions are executive then they lie with the cabinet, if they decide they are non executive then the council will determine how they should be exercised either by itself or by delegation to an ordinary committee of the council or to officers.

Best Value Reviews

The regulations give councils the flexibility to decide whether the functions of conducting a best value review is an executive function or not.

Executive Functions

Aside from the specific functions reserved to council or excluded from the executive, the effect of the legislation and regulations is that the vast majority of local authority functions must be discharged by the executive including many of the major service areas such as Social Services, Education, Housing and Transport, etc.. In exercising these functions the government considers that executives will operate with extensive delegation to officers, particularly where functions require professional officer skills.

Social Services

The new Act provides that local authorities operating in a new constitution will no longer be required to have a statutory Social Services Committee. All Social Services functions must be the responsibility of the executive.

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Other Council Structures

• The executive can delegate its functions to area committees in addition to any functions delegated to them by the full council.

• The executive can arrange to discharge functions jointly with other local authorities or their executives.
• The executive can delegate functions to another local authority or its executive and the local authority can delegate functions to the executive of another local authority.

The legislation will allow the executive to delegate to area committees, to joint committees, to another council and to contract out functions. Even where the executive delegates in accordance with its constitution responsibility for the discharge of that executive function remains with the executive. Accordingly, the executive will be held to account to overview and scrutiny committees both for the original decision to delegate or contract out a function and for the outcome of that action.

Area Committees

The Government believes that area committees can have an important role to play in bringing decision making closer to local people. Area Committees or forums can take many forms and undertake a variety of roles. Under the new legislation the executive can delegate functions and budgets to area committees provided the only voting members are councillors. In such circumstances area committees will be subject to the current rules on proportionality, etc.. Where an executive decide to delegate functions to area committees it should only do so as part of a comprehensive scheme of delegation:-

Additionally, there is no restriction on area committees exercising a scrutiny function. Indeed, there are circumstances where it would be very appropriate for an area committee or forum to scrutinise executive decisions in respect of the effect they have on that area and to make recommendations to scrutiny committees.

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Accountability Decision Making

• The executive will have to give advance notice of, and consult on, its key decisions.

• The public will have enhanced access to papers and decision-making.

• Decisions made by the executive, members of the executive or committees executive will have to be recorded and published together with the reasons for the decisions and the background papers.

Accountable Decision Making

The purpose behind introducing new constitutions is to make decision making more efficient transparent and accountable. The government's view is that it wishes local authorities to operate in the future to achieve these goals by way of inclusive decision making involving all interested parties and the community. In particular the policy framework and budget will be set by full council meeting in public, this after full consultation with local stakeholders. The executive will be charged with delivering this policy framework through day to day decisions on executive functions. The executive is charged to ensure that any decisions it takes reflects the wishes of the local community wherever possible. Scrutiny Committees will consult local stakeholders and use their knowledge of constituents views to make recommendations to the executive on policy changes. Decision making will be more effective if it has broad agreement beforehand with those who have an interest or are effected and will lead to less un-constructive challenges.

Accordingly, members of the executive should not take significant decisions without first being aware of all relevant considerations and after consulting other councillors and stakeholders for their views. It is also vital that there is clarity about decisions taken and by whom. There is a duty that a record is made of decisions taken. Failure to record these key decisions will be a criminal offence. This is an onus on the individual who makes the decision. The decision together with reasons and background papers must be publicly available as soon as practicable. Again failure to do this will be a criminal offence.

To facilitate this transparency of decision making and to give the public, other agencies and scrutiny committee notice of executive decisions, all key decisions to be taken by the executive must be set out in a forward plan. This forward plan must set out certain details on those matters due for consideration over the next four months, the plan to be continuously updated on a monthly basis. Decisions caught are those significant financial expenditures above set limits and the decisions which have significant impact on the whole or part of the community. Those decisions which arise for urgent determination require the agreement of the chair of the scrutiny committee to proceed, otherwise three days notice must be given of the details.

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Officers' Roles

• Every local authority will need to have a professional chief executive (head paid service).

• All staff will he employed by the local authority and serve all the members council; appointment of senior staff will involve input from both the executive and the council, and members will not be involved in the appointment of staff below deputy chief officer level.

• The chief executive (head of paid service), chief finance officer and monitoring officer will have key roles within the local authority.

• All local authorities should ensure effective support for all of their function.

Officers

Under a new constitution council will continue to have a professional chief executive and officers who will support both the executive and other councils in their various roles. The statutory protections against disciplinary action currently afforded to the head of paid service is proposed under the new legislation to be extended to the monitoring officer and the chief finance officer in recognition of their enhanced roles in the new constitution and the new ethical framework.

The Chief Executive

The core roles of the chief executive are:

• overall corporate management responsibility

• provision of professional advice to all parties in the decision making process

• political neutrality

• responsibility for record keeping of authority's decisions

• representing the authority on outside bodies

• service to the whole council

Usually, the chief executive is head of paid service and the new legislation specifies that that office holder cannot also be the monitoring officer.

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Arrangements of Officer Support

It is a matter for local choice how councils are to organise officer support for the different roles within new constitutions. However, there are some key principles for council's consideration:

• all council functions require support from officers

• scrutiny will need effective and properly resourced support from officers

• all officers will remain employed by and accountable to the authority as a whole

• councils need mechanisms for resolving potential conflicts of interest for officers brought about by the executive/scrutiny separation of roles

• all officers need training and development to help them support the various member roles effectively.

ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENTS

For Councils with a small population (under 85,000) it is possible to have an alternative arrangement:-

• The full council will have an enhanced policy making role under alternative arrangements.

• Alternative arrangements must involve effective overview and scrutiny.

• The local authority will be able to delegate implementation of its policy to streamlined committees.

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DRAWING UP PROPOSALS

• All local authorities must consult on and draw up proposals for a new constitution which involve alternative arrangements. involves executive arrangements or in the case of small shire district councils could

• If a local authority's proposals involve an elected mayor they must hold a local referendum, the result of which will be binding on the local authority.

• Under normal circumstances all local authorities should have submitted proposals to the Secretary of State by June 2001 and all local authorities should be operating a new constitution by June 2002.

Consultation on New Political Structures

The Act places a duty on the Council to consult on and draw up proposals for executive arrangements. If the proposals for executive arrangements include a directly elected mayor then the Council must seek a referendum. The result of the referendum is binding. If a proposal for an elected mayor is rejected the authority must resort to a different fallback option. Additionally, local people can trigger a referendum on proposals to include an elected mayor through a petition signed by at least 5% of local electors. Finally, the Secretary of State can direct a local authority to hold a referendum on any of the forms of executive arrangements. When the Council has finalised its proposals it must, under the legislation, send a copy to the Secretary of State for consideration. A resolution of the authority is required to bring executive arrangements into operation. The Act requires that as soon as possible after such a resolution the authority must give publicity to its executive arrangements and set out certain prescribed information.

The guidance anticipates that all councils should have implemented their new constitution, including executive arrangements, by May/June 2002 including holding any necessary referendum and mayoral election. The circular expects all authorities to have made significant progress to implementing a new constitution by May/June 2001.

The basic principles on which the consultation should be undertaken are :

• Consultation should be open and fair and should not lead respondents to any particular preference;

• All local people and stakeholders should have an opportunity to respond to the consultation, including hard to reach groups;

• A variety of methods (both qualitative and quantitative) should be used;

• Having consulted, proposals for executive arrangements must, when sent to the Secretary of State, be accompanied by a statement covering;

- a description of the steps the authority has taken to consult local people and other interested parties;

- a summary of the outcomes and responses;

- a description of how the council has taken those responses into account in its proposals for executive arrangements.

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Petitions

• A local authority will be required to hold a referendum on proposals which involve an elected mayor if it receives a valid petition signed by more than 5% of the local electorate.

• Local authorities will have to publicise annually the number of signatures required for a valid petition.

• Petitions which do not meet the 5% threshold can be amalgamated and treated as a single petition.

Petitions

When a council receives a petition for a directly elected mayor signed by at least 5% of the local electorate, it must hold a referendum.

The council must publish each year within fourteen days of the publication of the electoral register, a number which is equal to 5% of the local government electors for the area.

A petition must be checked to see if it is valid within one month of its receipt.

Signatures on a petition must be accompanied by the name and full address and the date of signing. Signatures dated more than 12 months before the petition date must also be disregarded. A petition should include the name and full address of the petition organiser.

Within one month of the petition date (which is the date of receipt of the petition) where the council is satisfied that the petition is valid then both the petition organiser and Secretary of State must be advised that the petition is valid, that a referendum will be held and the date of the referendum

Likewise, within the same period the authority must publish a notice in a local newspaper setting out similar prescribed information, together with details of the constitutional change sought by the petition and when the referendum will be held. If the Proper Officer considers that the petition is invalid, the same notification process must be followed both to the petition organiser, the Secretary of State and the public notice must also be published.

Where a petition does not have enough signatures and a subsequent petition is received requesting the same constitutional change then the council must amalgamate the petitions and treat them as a single petition.

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Referendums

• Regulations will specify the timing of referendums, the questions to be asked, publicity restrictions for local authorities and expenditure limits for individuals or campaign groups.

• A local authority must adopt fall-back proposals to be implemented if the main proposals are rejected by the referendum.

• The Secretary of State can direct any local authority to hold a referendum in circumstances set out in regulations; such as failure to consult in accordance with the legislation or the guidance, or failure to implement proposals,

A local authority must hold a referendum where:

• following consultation the authority chooses a constitution which includes a directly elected mayor;

• the authority receives a valid petition for a constitution which includes a directly elected mayor;

• the authority is required by the Secretary of State to hold a referendum;

• the authority is proposing to change to, from or between a form of arrangements for which a referendum is required.

Once a valid petition has been received the authority must draw up and consult on proposals to be the subject of the referendum and on outline fallback proposals. The referendum must be held no more than six months after the petition date and the proposals must be sent to the Secretary of State not less than two months before the referendum i.e., the authority must send the proposals and outline fallback proposals within four months of receiving the petition. The result of a referendum arising from a petition is binding. If the proposals are approved they must be implemented but if rejected the fallback option has to be implemented by the authority.

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Election of a Mayor

• Regulations will set out the rules for the conduct of mayoral elections, the timing of elections, publicity restrictions for local authorities, nomination requirements for candidates and expenditure limits for candidates and third parties.

• No-one can be a councillor and the elected mayor in the same local authority.

• There are transitional arrangements for the first election of the elected mayor and the elected mayor's first term of office

An elected mayor holds office for four years although the legislation propose transitional arrangements throughout an initial term of office of between two and five and a half years to bring it into step with the intended electoral cycle.

An elected mayor is treated as a councillor and member of the authority and thus is subject to normal rules and regulations which apply to councillors generally. Regulations set out the rules for elections for a directly elected mayor. These follow normal rules except that the voting system is the supplementary vote system under which voters cast the first and second preference votes. After counting all the first preference votes all but the top two candidates are eliminated then any of the eliminated candidates are added to the total and the one with the most is elected mayor.

The regulations provide for transitional arrangements and specify that the first election of the mayor must take place in the first week in May or third week in October which is not less than three months after the date of the referendum which approves proposals for a directly elected mayor. The first term of office for the mayor must be not less than two years and can be as much as five and a half years depending on when the actual cycle the first election of the mayor is held, e.g., if the first election of the mayor is held in the May, which is 12 months after the normal May date for election of the mayor, then the mayor's first term of office would be three years. The regulations will not allow a councillor to be both elected councillor of a division or ward and the elected mayor of the authority.

Changing the Arrangements

• Regulations will set out the rules governing how local authorities can amend their executive or alternative arrangements and how they can change between forms of arrangements.