PART 6OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY
CHAPTER 2GOVERNANCE AND AUDIT COMMITTEES
F183Proceedings etc
(1)
A meeting of a governance and audit committee is to be chaired—
(a)
by the committee chair, or
(b)
if the committee chair is absent, by the deputy chair.
(2)
If both the committee chair and the deputy chair are absent the committee may appoint a member of the committee who is not a member of the local authority's executive, or an assistant to its executive, to chair the meeting.
(3)
All members of F2a governance and audit committee may vote on any question that falls to be decided by the committee.
F3(3A)
If two or more members of a governance and audit committee are members of the executive who share office, those members have between them one vote for the purposes of subsection (3).
(4)
F4A governance and audit committee of a local authority—
(a)
may require members and officers of the authority to attend before it to answer questions, and
(b)
may invite other persons to attend meetings of the committee.
(5)
It is the duty of any member or officer of a local authority to comply with any requirement imposed under subsection (4)(a).
(6)
A person is not obliged by subsection (5) to answer any question which the person would be entitled to refuse to answer in, or for the purposes of, proceedings in a court in England and Wales.
(7)
F5A governance and audit committee is to be treated as a committee of a principal council for the purposes of Part 5A of the Local Government Act 1972 (access to meetings and documents of certain authorities, committees and sub-committees).
F6(8)
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