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PART 1 WSTRENGTHENING LOCAL DEMOCRACY

CHAPTER 2WLOCAL AUTHORITY DEMOCRATIC SERVICES

12MembershipW

(1)A local authority is to appoint the members of its democratic services committee.

(2)A local authority must secure that—

(a)each member of its democratic services committee is a member of the authority;

(b)no more than one of the members of its democratic services committee is a member of the authority's executive [F1(but see subsection (6))] [F2or an assistant to its executive];

(c)in the case of a local authority which operates a leader and cabinet executive (Wales), the executive leader is not a member of its democratic services committee.

(3)The appointment of a person as a member of a democratic services committee has no effect if the membership of the committee breaches subsection (2) immediately after the appointment (whether or not by virtue of the appointment).

(4)In a case where one or more persons are to become, or to cease to be, members of a democratic services committee at a particular time, all those changes of membership are to be taken into account in determining whether the membership of the committee breaches subsection (2).

(5)A democratic services committee of a local authority is to be treated as a body to which section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (duty to allocate seats to political groups) applies.

[F3(6)If two or more members of a local authority are appointed to the executive to share office, more than one of those members may be appointed to its democratic services committee (and if they are so appointed, together they count as one executive member for the purposes of subsection (2)(b)).]