Commentary Part 1: Local Government Chapter 5: Governance New Sections 9G and 9GA: Meetings and access to information etc
75.New sections 9G and 9GA allow the Secretary of State to specify in regulations the circumstances in which meetings of the executive or its committees must be open to the public and which must be held in private. Other than where specified in regulations, it will be for the executive to choose whether to meet in private or in public. Written records of prescribed decisions made at meetings of the executive held in private or by individual members of the executive must be kept, including reasons for the decisions. These records, together with such reports and background papers as may be prescribed, must be made available to the public. Regulations could ensure that failure by the executive to cause to have such a record made and failure by the proper officer of the authority to make the record public would be criminal offences.
76.Regulations under these sections would also be able to apply provisions of Part 5A of the Local Government Act 1972, with or without modifications, to meetings of the executive and its committees, whether held in public or in private. The regulations may make provision requiring prescribed information about prescribed decisions to be made publicly available, and may also make provision about access to meetings of joint committees which are discharging functions which are the responsibility of the executive.
77.New section 9GB gives effect to Schedule A1.
78.New section 9GC provides that section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, which is about the duty to allocate seats to political groups, does not apply to a local authority executive or a committee of an executive.