Commentary on Sections Part 3 of Schedule 11: Transition committees of merging councils and restructuring councils Chapter 4: Remuneration arrangements for new principal councils Section 142 - Directions to Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales
642.Section 142 enables the Welsh Ministers to direct the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales to perform “the relevant functions” in relation to shadow councils, and new principal councils for the financial year in which the transfer date falls (i.e. the date on which the shadow council assumes the full range of principal council functions and replaces the merging or restructuring councils which are abolished).
643.The relevant functions are those set out in section 142 of the 2011 Measure (which concerns payments to be made to elected members) and section 143 of the 2011 Measure (pensions for elected members).
644.The Panel must follow the procedures set out in Part 8 of the 2011 Measure (other than section 143A of that Measure) subject to the provisions in subsection (4) of this section, which modify and disapply aspects of Part 8 of the 2011 Measure.
645.Subsection (4)(a) provides that the shadow council is a “relevant authority” for the purposes of Part 8 of the 2011 Measure; “relevant authority” being defined in section 144(2) of the 2011 Measure. Subsection (4)(b) relates to the requirements in sections 147 and 148 of the 2011 Measure about the dates by which the Panel must publish its annual report and drafts of the annual report.
646.As noted above, the transfer date for a new principal council will generally be 1 April, but the annual report and draft annual report in which the Independent Remuneration Panel will set out its determinations for the first year of that council will be published in the months before the transfer takes place. Subsection (4)(b) means that in this circumstance the Panel may make determinations in respect of “the council-in-waiting” before it is established, as if it were already established.
647.Subsection (5) will allow the Panel to address the circumstances where a designated shadow council has become the fully vested council on the transfer date (almost always 1 April) and is not replaced by the elected council for the new area until the first ordinary elections are held, probably in May of the same year. Subsection (5) enables the Panel, in making determinations for the first financial year of the new authority, to be able to make different determinations for the periods before and after the first set of elections.