A Proposal to Move Sheffield City Council to All-Council Elections ================================================================== Author: J.G.Harston Version: 1.00 Date: 11/06/2007 http://mdfs.net/User/JGH/Docs/Council/Election/Cycle FIRST MOTION: --------------------------------------------------------------------- This Council: a) Shall instruct relevant officers to consult relevant parties on proposals to move Sheffield City Council to all-council four-yearly elections, in line with Part 2 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. b) Shall convene a Special Council to consider the results of the consultation and to consider resolving to move to all-council elections within three months of this motion, as per the requirements of the Act. c) Notes that said Special Council requires a two-thirds majority of those voting to to pass the resolution, as per the requirements of the Act. --------------------------------------------------------------------- REPORT 1 SUMMARY 1.1 The purpose of this report is to enable the Council to consider whether or not to change the electoral cycle of the Council from a system of elections by thirds, to a system of whole council elections every four years. 2 INTRODUCTION 2.1 By Part 2 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 the Council can resolve to change the electoral cycle provided that a resolution to that effect is passed by not less than two thirds of the Members voting on the resolution at an extraordinary meeting of the Council convened for the purpose of considering the matter. 2.2 The Electoral Commission was asked by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to undertake work to consider the issue of Council electoral cycles and it reported back on 27 January 2004. 2.3 The recommendations of the Electoral Commission were as follows: (1) "The Commission recommends that the cycle of local and sub national government elections in England should follow a clear and consistent pattern, within and across local authorities. Individual authorities should not be permitted to "opt out" of this pattern, and any newly created authorities should also follow the same pattern. (2) The Commission recommends that each local authority in England should hold whole council elections, with all councillors elected simultaneously, every four years. (3) The Commission recommends that all local government electors in England should elect members of their district, metropolitan borough, London borough or unitary council simultaneously once every four years. Two years later, in the mid point of the electoral cycle, electors in areas with county councils, city wide authorities or any future sub national government should elect representatives to those bodies." 3 RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS 3.1 By moving to whole council elections, there would be savings in the cost of running elections compared to the current arrangements. This arises as there would be elections every four years instead of three years out of four as now. It would not be a clear one-third saving as each election would be a multi-member election. 4 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS 4.1 For the Council to change the Council's electoral cycle, it is necessary for two thirds of the members present and voting on the resolution at a Special Council to vote in favour of the change. Abstention does not count as voting therefore, if 81 members attend, 75 vote and 6 abstain from voting, the vote in favour needs to be 50. If 81 vote and none abstain, the vote in favour needs to be 54. If 81 attend, 60 abstain and 16 vote for, 5 against, the motion would be carried. 5 RECOMMENDATION 5.1. The Council is RECOMMENDED to consider moving to a system of whole council elections. Background Papers The Electoral Commission's Circular EC05/2004 --------------------------------------------------------------------- SECOND MOTION: --------------------------------------------------------------------- This Council: a) Resolves, in line with Part 2 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, that it shall move to all-council four-yearly elections commencing with the elections held on the date of normal elections in 2011. b) Instructs relevant officers to publicise the change to all-council four-yearly elections. c) Shall inform the Electoral Commission of this resolution. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Commentary ---------- The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 allows a district council that current elects in halves or thirds to move to all-council elections. There are two steps to this process. Firstly, the Council must decide to start the process - the first Motion. The Council must then consult "those parties it deems relevant" on the proposal. Secondly, a Special Full Council must be convened to consider the change to the electon cycle as its sole agenda item. A two-thirds majority of those voting is required to pass the resolution. Once the resolution is passed and the Electoral Commission is informed (and, for safety, is acknowledged by the Commission), the Council moves to all-council elections from the date of the next normal English all-council election. The next such year is 2011. Although the Special Council must only have a single agenda item, once the meeting has concluded, the Council can immediately move to another Full Council scheduled for 'at the conclusion of the Special Council'. At the moment, the Act specified that a Metropolitan Council moving to all-ups must hold elections in 2010 and every fourth subsequent year instead of 2011 as in the rest of England. I email minsters during the passage of the Bill and got no response; I have written to ministers and am waiting a reply. References ---------- "Electoral Cycle" Report to Broadland District Council, 3 November 2004 Version History --------------- 11-Jun-2007: Initial draft, still waiting for the Bill to become an Act. 12-Nov-2007: Bill has now become an Act and has been signed into law.