City of York Council (Logo)

Meeting:

Council

Meeting date:

27/03/2025

Report of:

Bryn Roberts, Director of Governance and Monitoring Officer

Portfolio of:

Cllr Douglas, Leader of the Council and Executive Member for Policy, Strategy and Partnerships


Decision Report: Use of General Exception (Urgency) and Special Urgency Procedures


Subject of Report

 

1.           This report advises Council on the use of Special Urgency procedures, as required by legislation, and as set out within the City of York Council Constitution and reports, for information, instances where General Exception (i.e. Urgency) Procedures were used.

 

Benefits and Challenges

 

1.           Reporting the use of Special Urgency and General Exception procedures is a statutory and constitutional requirement, and the benefit to the authority is a transparent and open record of these matters.

 

Policy Basis for Decision

 

2.           The report complies with the requirements of the City of York Council constitution.

 

Financial Strategy Implications

 

3.           There are no financial strategy implications connected with this report.

 

 

Recommendation and Reasons

 

4.           Council is requested to note the report.

 

Reason: To comply with legislative and constitutional requirements, and ensure full transparency.

 

Background

 

5.           Prior to taking a Key Decision, the Council’s Executive must give notice of the intention to take the decision, and this notice must be given at least 28 clear calendar days before the decision is made.

 

6.            Where publication of the intention to make a Key Decision is impracticable within the required 28-day timeframe, then the General Exception (urgency) rules, as set out at paragraph 14.1 of the Appendix 7 in the Council’s constitution, may be applied.

 

7.           If a decision is sufficiently urgent, the requirement to give five clear days’ notice of the decision may be waived by invoking the Special Urgency procedure.  As the City of York Council constitution stipulates that both Key Decisions and those Non Key Decisions taken by the Executive collectively or by an individual Executive Member may be called in, then the use of Special Urgency procedures is reported in respect of both Key and Non Key Decisions.

 

8.           In accordance with the Access to Information Procedure Rules (Rule 17) and paragraph 19 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, the use of the Special Urgency procedure in relation to Executive decisions is to be reported quarterly to Council.

 

9.           The Access to Information Procedure Rules set out at Appendix 7 of the Council’s Constitution, provide that a quarterly report should be submitted to Council detailing the instances where Special Urgency procedures have been used in the preceding three months.

 

10.           There have been no (zero) instances of the Special urgency procedures being used in the preceding four months, since last reported to Council in November 2024.  The details of that decision are set out in Annex A to this report.

 

11.           There have been no (zero) instances of the General Exception rules being used in the preceding four months in respect of a Key Decision, since last reported to Council in November 2024.

 

Organisational Impact and Implications

 

·                    Financial: No implications

·                    Human Resources: No implications

·                    Legal: No implications

·                    Procurement: No implications

·                    Health and Wellbeing: No implications

·                    Environment and Climate action: No implications

·                    Affordability: No implications

·                    Equalities and Human Rights: No implications

·                    Data Protection and Privacy: No implications

·                    Communications: No implications

·                    Economy: No implications


Risks and Mitigations

 

12.        There is a risk to the authority in not reporting these matters, which would be a breach of statutory and constitutional requirements.

 

Contact details

 

For further information please contact the author of this Decision Report.

 

Author

 

Name:

Bryn Roberts

Job Title:

Director of Governance & Monitoring Officer

Service Area:

Democratic Governance

Report approved:

Yes

Date:

18/03/2025



Background papers

 

·        City of York Council constitution CYC Constitution