Is there such a thing as an easy question? Only if you know the answer...

Question

Quorate or non quorate?

So we have model standing orders:

"...No business may be transacted at a meeting unless at least one third of the whole number of members of the Council are present and in no case shall the quorum of a meeting be less than three..."

But, as is currently the case, there are 3 vacancies on a council of 13.

Is the “at least ⅓ required to be quorate” calculated from the total number of complemented Cllrs on a council or is it from the current number of sitting Councillors on a council?

We have a complement for 13 but we currently have 10.

13/3 = 4.3 so to achieve at least ⅓ we must have 5 present to be quorate

10/3 = 3.3 so to achieve at least ⅓ we would need 4 present to be quorate

If we lost another Cllr we would be 9 of 13 divided by 3 = 3

Any previous experience of this?

The exam question is - are the calculations to achieve a quorate council meeting based upon the number of currently sitting councillors or on the full complement number of Cllr’s?

Answer 1

My interpretation is that it's based on your current number of councillors not total seats.

In my case we have 7 councillors (out of 9 allowed, and have actually always only had 7 in my time there) so we use the minimum 3 either way - and have needed to on a couple of occasions.

Could become interesting  if you ever have some having to declare interests/not partake in votes etc.

Comments

Never had an issue with this but my understanding is that the quorum is based upon the number of seats regardless of whether those seats are filled or not.  So, with a council of 9, the quorum is 3 which is the minimum anyway but if, for example, you have a council of 15, the quorum would be 5 even if you only have 9 seats filled.  And yes I have had situations with a very small council where there were 5 seats and after two members gave apologies an agenda item where one declared an interest could not be decided as there were only two remaining.  Of course, that would be an ideal situation for a dispensation to be granted if requested but that's another topic.

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So we have one for number of seats and one for number of Cllrs in the seats so far....  I didn't think this was going to be an easy question.

Answer 2

The answer rests within the small print.

Section 12 of the LGA gives us "Subject to paragraph 45 below, no business shall be transacted at a meeting of a parish council unless at least one-third of the whole number of members of the council are present at the meeting; but, notwithstanding anything in that paragraph, in no case shall the quorum be less than three."

So what does "whole number" mean? Section 45 provides the answer: "Where more than one-third of the members of a local authority become disqualified at the same time, then, until the number of members in office is increased to not less than two-thirds of the whole number of members of the authority, the quorum of the authority shall be determined by reference to the number of members of the authority remaining qualified instead of by reference to the whole number of members of the authority."

Simples, as that irritating stuffed toy might say!

Comments

Am I missing something here?

LGA 1972 s12. Provision supplementary to sections 9 to 11.
LGA 2000 s12. Information.

Which version of which Act is s12?

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But apart from that - if you lose a ⅓ of your members, your quorum is dictated by the number of the 2/3s remaining but in any case not less than 3.

Is that what its saying....?

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Oops, sorry, Schedule 12 Part 2!

Quorum is a proportion of the "whole number" and the "whole number" is seats, not bums!