A local authority is to appoint the person who is to chair the democratic services committee (who must not be a member of an executive group).

If there are no opposition groups, the person who is to chair the democratic services committee may be a member of an executive group but must not be a member of the local authority's executive F1or an assistant to its executive.

A democratic services committee is to appoint the person who is to chair any sub-committee of such a committee.

All members of a democratic services committee, or of a sub-committee of such a committee, may vote on any question that falls to be decided by the committee.

If two or more members of a democratic services committee are members of the executive who share office, those members have between them one vote for the purposes of subsection (4).

It is the duty of any member or officer of a local authority to comply with any requirement imposed under subsection (5)(a).

A person is not obliged by subsection (6) to answer any question which the person would be entitled to refuse to answer in, or for the purposes of, proceedings in a court in England and Wales.

A democratic services committee, or a sub-committee of such a committee, is to be treated as a committee, or sub-committee, of a principal council for the purposes of Part 5A of the Local Government Act 1972 (access to meetings and documents of certain authorities, committees and sub-committees).

For the purposes of subsections (1) and (2), the expressions “executive group” and “opposition group” have the same meaning as in section 75.