Part 4 - Rules of access to information about the County Council's formal business
Below are the rules of access to information about the County Council's formal business.
- 1 - Introduction
- 2 - The public's right to attend meetings
- 3 - The public’s right to obtain copies of the agenda to meetings and reports and documents that are to be discussed at meetings
- 4 - Sub-committees, panels and groups
- 5 - Decisions by the Leader of the Council, Cabinet Members and Officers
- 6 - Minutes of meetings and executive decisions
- 7 - Charges for the supply of agenda, reports and background papers
- 8 - The special rules that apply to “key decisions”
- 9 - Exceptions to the need to publish notice of a key decision 28 days in advance
- 10 - The general exception rule
- 11 - The special urgency rule
- 12 - Scrutiny committees
- 13 - Elected Members’ additional rights of access to information
- 14 - Additional rights of access to information by Scrutiny Committees
- 14 - Elected Members’ duty of confidence
- Appendix to rules on the public's right of access to information about the council's formal business
The formal business of the Council is carried out at meetings of the full Council, meetings of other Council bodies to which it has delegated responsibility for some of its functions, meetings of the Cabinet and by the Leader of the Council, Cabinet Members and Officers under “delegated powers”.
County Councillors and members of the public enjoy certain legal rights to discover in advance what will be discussed at each meeting, obtain copies of documents about items of business, to attend meetings and discover what decisions were made.
The public also has a right to know about certain decisions taken by the Leader of the Council, Cabinet Members and Officers and the reasons for those decisions. These rights are usually known as “individuals’ rights of access to information”, and are important because they help to ensure the Council is accountable for its decisions and promote increased and better informed participation in the work of the Authority.
The purpose of this part of the Constitution is, therefore, to summarise the rules that enable people to obtain access to information about the Council’s business.