The Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) (Amendment) Regulations 1999

Statutory Instruments

1999 No. 500

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ENGLAND AND WALES

The Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) (Amendment) Regulations 1999

Made

1st March 1999

Laid before Parliament

10th March 1999

Coming into force

31st March 1999

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 13(4)(g) and 190(1) of, and paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to, the Local Government and Housing Act 1989(1) hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) (Amendment) Regulations 1999 and shall come into force on 31st March 1999.

Amendment of Regulations

2.  The Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990(2) are amended–

(a) in regulation 5 (sub-committees where persons may have voting rights), by the substitution–

(i) in paragraph (1)(a), of “mentioned or referred to in regulation 4” for “mentioned in regulation 4”; and

(ii) in paragraph (2)(c), of “mentioned or referred to in regulation 4(1)” for “mentioned in regulation 4(1)”; and

(b) in regulation 16B (joint area committees of county and district councils)(3) by the substitution for sub-paragraphs (c) and (d), of the following–

“(c) at least one member elected for each county electoral division which is wholly or partly within that area is appointed a voting member of the joint committee by the county council which is a relevant authority for the purposes of appointments to that committee(4);

(d) each district council which is a relevant authority for those purposes(5) appoints as voting members at least the same number of members of the district council as has been appointed by the county council in accordance with sub-paragraph (c); but–

(i) no district council member may be so appointed unless he is elected for a district ward which is wholly or partly within the area in respect of which the joint committee’s functions are discharged; and

(ii) nothing in this sub-paragraph shall require the appointment of any district council member who is not so elected;

(e) not more than two of the voting members of the joint committee appointed by each relevant authority have been elected for electoral divisions or wards which are outside that area.”.

Revocation of Regulations

3.  Regulation 2 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Local Government (Committees) (Amendment) Regulations 1993(6) are revoked.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State

Hilary Armstrong

Minister of State,

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions

1st March 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend regulations 5 and 16B of the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990.

The amendment to regulation 5 secures that references in paragraphs (1)(a) and (2)(c) to functions include the functions mentioned in Part I of the Schedule to the Regulations (inserted by S.I. 1993/1339 and substituted by S.I. 1998/1918).

Regulation 16B is concerned with representation on joint area committees of county and district councils. The effect of the amendment is to secure that the number of appointees with voting rights of each of the participating district councils is at least the same as the number of county council appointees with voting rights. Where an insufficient number of district council members are qualified for appointment (they must be elected for district wards wholly or partly within the area in which the joint committee discharges functions), the participating district council is required to appoint only so many of its members as satisfy that requirement.

(1)

1989 c. 42.

(2)

S.I. 1990/1553; relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1993/1339 and 1998/1918.

(3)

Regulation 16B was added by S.I. 1998/1918.

(4)

See the definition of “relevant authority” in paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 1 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and section 21(1)(a) of that Act.

(5)

See section 21(1)(b) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

(6)

S.I. 1993/1339.