Agenda and minutes

None

None

The Minutes of the Last Meeting held on the 27 April 2023 were held as a true and accurate record.

The Assistant Head of Legal Services presented this item to Committee. The All Wales Monitoring Officers’ Group, via funding from the Welsh Local Government Association commissioned Browne Jacobson to draft a new model constitution and a model constitution guide due to provisions coming into force under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. The all-Wales model Constitution has been approved for local authorities to adopt and will be implemented in sections as part of the work programme for committee. These will be considered by Committee before being presented to Cabinet and Council for approval and adoption as appropriate.

Questions:

The Committee noted that their understanding of the intention of the updated constitution was to make the Constitution clearer and easier to understand.

The Assistant Head of Legal Services highlighted that the object was to make a model Constitution that can be adopted by all local authorities in Wales. The aim is to get consistency across all local authorities to make it easier for members, officers and the public to work in accordance with the constitution. Different local authorities have different processes so the model Constitution will still need to be tailored to reflect how Newport City Council works.

The Committee noted that there was a considerable amount of information in the Constitution, some of which has not been amended for some time, and therefore a large undertaking to review the Constitution.

The Assistant Head of Legal Services noted that whilst the current document works it is not perfect, but harmonisation is required, which will support clarification and consistency.

The Committee requested confirmation on the timescale of progress to allow it to return to Committee.

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager noted that it will be split, and sectional reports will be brought to the Committee so would need to be included in the Forward Work Programme, beginning at the next meeting.

The Assistant Head of Legal Services highlighted that due to the volume of work it is going to take several months and anticipated that the Committee will be considering part of the Constitution at each meeting for a period of time.

The Committee queried whether it would be presented at Council in full.

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager noted that it would be presented to Cabinet Council as appropriate, in stages once approved by the Committee.

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager presented this item to Committee.

Main Points:

·        Under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 Local Authorities were required to develop a Participation Strategy that supports residents to become more involved in decision-making and to encourage more diversity in decision-makers.

·        As part of this public engagement process, the Council was also required to make and publish a Petition Scheme, setting out how public petitions can be submitted and how the Council will respond.

·        Democratic Services Committee supported the development of the Strategy and the Petition Scheme, which were adopted by Council in May 2022.

·        These working definitions are informed by ‘Practitioners’ Manual for Public Engagement’ (Participation Cymru, 2012).

·        Engagement: An active and participative process by which people can influence and shape policy and services that includes a wide range of different methods and techniques.

·        Consultation: A formal process by which policy makers and service providers ask for the views of interested groups and individuals

·        Participation: People being actively involved with policy makers and service planners from an early stage of policy and service planning and review.

·        Specific Participation duties under the legislation embedded into the Strategy which include:

o   Promoting awareness of the functions the Council carries out to residents, businesses and visitors.

o   Sharing information about how to go about becoming an elected Member, or Councillor, and what the role of Councillor involves.

o   Providing greater access to information about decisions that have been made, or that will be made by the Council.

o   Providing and promoting opportunities for residents to provide feedback to the Council, including comments, complaints and other types of representations.

o   Promoting awareness of the benefits of using social media to communicate with residents to Councillors.

·        The principles agreed in the Strategy build on strengths, reflecting the existing functions in place that support Participation, whilst also including actions that support further progression and development.

·        The expectation is that councils will build on this experience and move towards greater participation.

·        Feedback from consultation indicated that residents:

o   Are interested in the decisions that the Council makes and would welcome having more of a voice as part of the decision-making process.

o   Felt that there was room to improve in terms of citizen engagement and involvement in the democratic process.

o   Felt that the actions outlined in the strategy would help residents to become more involved in decision making.

o   Would like engagement to focus on more varied and alternative methods of communication, particularly with potentially harder to reach groups.

·        Monitoring progress is about looking at the strategic aim and what we already have in place to build on, the actions we take to improve and the measures in place to track the progress. There are individual performance measures that are tracked in service plans and progress against the Strategy would be reported through the Council’s Annual Self-Assessment Report: Wellbeing Objective 4 around Improving Participation and Involvement.

·        Key Actions under the Strategy are:

o   Develop and publish a scheme that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Presentation from the Democratic and Electoral Services Manager

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager presented this item to the Committee.

Main Points:

·        The Elections Act 2022 received Royal Assent in April 2022 however the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) are still developing the policy and secondary legislation.

·        The Bill impacts the administration of electoral registration and elections, and there are practical arrangements the Council must consider in readiness for implementing the changes.

·        Part 1 of the Act introduces several new measures aimed at strengthening the integrity of the electoral process.

·        Voter ID application portal went live on 16 January 2023 and from 4 May 2023 applies to:

o   UK Parliamentary by-elections

o   UK Parliamentary recall petitions

o   Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales

o   Local government elections and referendums in England (not in Wales)

o   From 5 October 2023 also applies to UK Parliamentary general elections

·        Unless there is any UK Parliamentary election activity that is earlier than currently scheduled, this will come into effect in Wales in the polling stations from May 2024.

·        The ID can be those on the list provided by DLUHC, or residents can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate (VAC) through their local authority.

·        At local elections in England on 4 May, voters needed to show photo identification to vote in polling stations. These were the first elections in Great Britain where this requirement was in place. Elections took place in 230 areas in England and around 27 million people were eligible to vote.

·        High level of scrutiny of the impact of Voter ID, although it is still early days in terms of analysis.

·        It is not easy to predict the volume of people applying for the ID; in recent pilots this has been less than 5% of the population.

·        The Electoral Commission found that:

o   Awareness of the need to bring ID to vote at a polling station was high.

o   Awareness and take-up of the Voter Authority Certificate was low.

o   At least 0.25% of people who tried to vote at a polling station in May 2023 were not able to because of the ID requirement.

o   Around 4% of all non-voters said they didn’t vote because of the voter ID requirement.

o   The UK Government and the wider electoral community should work to improve the collection of data at polling stations.

o   Levels of voter confidence and satisfaction were similar to previous elections.

·        Democracy Volunteers are impartial observers who aim to attend elections and report their observations. They had 150 accredited observers at the English local elections and observers generally formed teams and attended 879 polling stations across all the regions in England.

·        They found that 1.2% of those attending polling stations were turned away because they lacked the relevant ID or were judged not to have it.

·        The Electoral Commission will:

o   Run the national public communications campaign to raise awareness.

o   Support those without eligible identification to understand how and when they can apply for an electoral identity document.

·        It is anticipated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

23 November 2023 at 10am

23rd November 2023 at 10am