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
- After a meeting of the full Council, a Council body or the Cabinet, Legal & Democratic Services will produce a “minute” (a written record) that records, in summary form, every decision that was made at the meeting. The public is entitled to look at and obtain copies of minutes, the associated agenda and reports and background papers provided they are no more than 6 years old (4 years old in relation to background papers) (time begins to run from the date of the meeting). The Council is not obliged to disclose exempt information when it publishes a minute, but if it does not and as a result part of the minutes would be difficult to understand, the Monitoring Officer must provide a summary so that part of the minute can be understood.
As soon as reasonably practicable after the Cabinet, a Cabinet Member or an Officer has made an executive decision Democratic Services will publish a decision statement setting out:
- A record of the decision including the date it was made
- The reasons for the decision
- Details of any alternative options considered and rejected by the decision maker
- A record of any conflict of interest declared by a member of Cabinet
A note of any dispensation granted by the Head of Paid Service relating to a conflict of interest declared by a Cabinet Member.
Page updated:
08/10/2020
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