The Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) (Amendment) Regulations 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990 (“the 1990 Regulations”).

Regulation 3 amends regulation 4 of the 1990 Regulations which specifies the circumstances in which members of certain committees and sub-committees may have voting rights. It extends the provision in connection with committees established exclusively to discharge superannuation functions to all authorities and not just to metropolitan district councils.

Regulation 3 also provides—

(a) in the case of an English county council committee discharging any of the functions in a substituted Schedule to the 1990 Regulations, for voting rights to be extended to district council members of the committee where the district is in the county or ceased to be in the county pursuant to local government reorganisation under the Local Government Act 1992; and

(b) in the case of a district council committee discharging any of those functions, voting rights are extended to committee members who are members of the council of the county comprising the district.

Regulation 4(1) amends regulation 16A of the 1990 Regulations and extends an exception to the duty to allocate seats to different political groups in relation to committees and sub-committees established for a particular part of the area of certain councils where the members have been elected for divisions or wards wholly or partly within the part concerned.

Regulation 4(2) inserts a new regulation 16B into the 1990 Regulations which provides an exception to the duty to allocate seats to different political groups in relation to a joint committee of a county and one or more district councils which is established exclusively to discharge functions in respect of the whole or part of the area of a district.