PART 6OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY
CHAPTER 2AUDIT COMMITTEES
83Proceedings etc
1
An audit committee is to appoint the person who is to chair the committee (who may be a member of the authority or a lay member but who must not be a member of an executive group).
2
If there are no opposition groups, the person who is to chair the audit committee may be a member of an executive group but must not be a member of the local authority’s executive.
3
All members of an audit committee may vote on any question that falls to be decided by the committee.
4
An audit committee of a local authority—
a
may require members and officers of the authority to attend before it to answer questions, and
b
may invite other persons to attend meetings of the committee.
5
It is the duty of any member or officer of a local authority to comply with any requirement imposed under subsection (4)(a).
6
A person is not obliged by subsection (5) 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.
7
An audit committee is to be treated as a 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).
8
For the purposes of subsections (1) and (2), the expressions “executive group” and “opposition group” have the same meaning as in section 75.