Section 23 and Schedule 1: Executive arrangements: further provision
55.Schedule 1 sets out further details of the working of executive arrangements and makes provisions about the role of church and parent governors on overview and scrutiny committees.
56.For a mayor and cabinet executive, the arrangements must allow the mayor to determine the size of the executive (subject to the restriction in section 11(8)). The arrangements must also allow the mayor to appoint his or her own deputy from amongst the executive.
57.For a leader and cabinet executive, either the authority or the leader can determine the size of the executive, subject to the restriction in section 11(8). The arrangements may include provision with respect to the election and term of office of the executive leader and the appointment and term of office of members of the executive where the council appoints them.
58.For a mayor and council manager executive, the arrangements must allow the mayor to appoint a deputy from amongst the members of the authority, who cannot be the chairman or vice-chairman of the authority or be on an overview and scrutiny committee; this is to preserve independence between these three parts of the council. The council manager is entitled to attend and speak at council meetings and committee and sub-committee meetings. This allows him to carry out his duties, to advise the council and to be open to scrutiny. He will not, however, be allowed to vote, as he will not be an elected member of the authority. Schedule 1 also provides that the post of council manager is a politically restricted post, and that the post cannot be combined with that of chief finance officer or monitoring officer. Politically restricted posts are dealt with in Part I of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (sections 1 to 3).
59.The Schedule also allows committees to be set up by the elected mayor to advise the executive in the mayor and council manager executive. This will ensure that the executive has access to advice and that policy-making can be properly informed. The Schedule allows such committees not to be politically balanced, reflecting the provisions for the executive as a whole set out in section 24.
60.The Schedule provides that, in the case of arrangements involving either the mayor and cabinet or mayor and council manager form of executive, a deputy mayor in Wales will be able to be called by the Welsh equivalent to the title in addition to the English language version.
61.The Schedule permits executive arrangements to cover such matters as the conduct of meetings, and similar matters in relation to committees of the executive. It also enables the Secretary of State to make regulations for appointment of an assistant for the mayor.
62.As a consequence of the provisions on access to information, the Schedule makes it clear that a member of a local authority who is not a member of the executive is only entitled to attend and speak at a meeting of the executive which is held in private if invited to do so.
63.The Schedule also makes detailed provision about the appointment of church and parent governor representatives to overview and scrutiny committees (see paragraph 52 above).
