Power of Competence. Is it retained after election?

Question

I'm standing for a Parish Council which has Power of Competence. It's very likely that more than half of the current Parish Council will be re-elected but just under half will be new to the task.

Following a parish council election is the Power of Competence retained, or must it be regained?

Answer 1

From recollection, it requires two third to be elected (contested or uncontested) and the Clerk to be qualified. This 'test' should be reapplied at every annual meeting to ensure they retain the power, and confirmed in the minutes (ideally).

Comments

Thank you for the prompt reply.
Since it seems likely that all Parish Councillors will be elected and the current clerk (who is qualified) will be remaining in post the Parish Council will be retaining its Power of Competence for, at least, a year.

Answer 2

To exercise the GPC a parish council must conform with the following:-

• at least two thirds of the total number of councillors have been elected (at ordinary or by election), not co- opted, at the meeting the resolution is passed to confirm that the council is eligible
• the council’s clerk holds either
  • Certificate in Local Council Administration (CILCA); for those that took the old CiLCA 2012 syllabus they should also have passed the newer Section 7 which is to test knowledge of the general power
  • or level 4 qualification awarded by the University of Gloucestershire, (eg the Certificate of Higher Education in Local Policy, or foundation degree in Community Engagement and Governance 
• the clerk should (not mandatory) complete relevant training in the GPC provided in accordance with the national training strategy, (we would recommend that clerks attend training before submitting section 7 referred to above).
• having met the above conditions, the council passes a resolution to confirm this and it is clearly minuted.  

Answer 3

It doesn't matter if the councillors are old or new - they will have all been elected (an not co-opted) after the 2nd May.  As long as you have filled the 2/3rd of your seats then that part of the criteria is met.  The clerk needs to be qualified and a resolution passed.  That resolution will stand for the 4 years until the next election - it doesn't matter if councillors leave and you end up co-opting more.

However, you have to pass the resolution, GPC will expire otherwise.

Comments

So let me be clear my PC has only 10 volunteers for 19 vacancies at the 2 May elections. So at the next meeting i.e. before any co-options they must resolve to retain GPC given 100% of sitting Cllrs are elected. If however they don't and say the other 9 are co-opted they could be in a position where less than two thirds are elected and GPC would lapse.? In essence does the two thirds apply to posts or sitting Cllrs

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If there are 19 seats on the council, you will need to have 13 councillors elected, either by public vote or uncontested election, in order to retain your GPC.  Any less than 13 and you lose your GPC until May 2023.