The purpose of this report is to recommend a change to the Council’s Procedure Rules for notices of motion and a protocol for adoption.

The Assistant Director Law, Governance and Resilience reported that issues with the process for amending notices of motion had been highlighted at Council in September 2012.  Consequently, the amendment of the Council’s Procedure Rules was recommended, alongside a related protocol.  This would allow Members to retain priority by lodging a notice of motion (or a description of the subject matter) and then to refine the wording, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, to ensure proper formulation prior to the publication of the relevant agenda.

The Chairman welcomed the report and noted the need for the deadline on submission to ensure that sufficient notice could be given of the subject matter to be debated.

In response to a question, the Assistant Director Law, Governance and Resilience confirmed that the existing Procedure Rules limited the number of notices to a maximum of three notices on each agenda [paragraph 4.1.16.2 refers].

The Committee endorsed the recommendations to Council.

RESOLVED:  That the following be recommended to Council:

(a)       Procedure Rule 4.1.16 be amended as indicated in the protocol appended to the report; and

(b)      the protocol appended to the report be adopted.