The Overview and Scrutiny (Reference by Councillors) (Excluded Matters) (England) Order 2008

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

Section 21A(1)(c) of the Local Government Act 2000 (inserted by section 119 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007) requires the executive arrangements of a local authority in England to include provision enabling those of its members who are not members of the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee to refer to that committee any “local government matter” relevant to the committee’s functions. A “local government matter” is defined in section 21A(10), in relation to a member of a local authority, as a matter which relates to the discharge of any function of the authority, affects all or part of the electoral area for which the member is elected or any person who lives or works in that area, and is not an “excluded matter”.

Section 21A(11) defines “excluded matter” as a matter which is a local crime and disorder matter within the meaning of section 19 of the Police and Justice Act 2006 (c.48) or a matter of any description specified in an order made by the Secretary of State for the purposes of section 21A.

This Order specifies descriptions of matters that are not to be local government matters for the purposes of section 21A.

The effect of article 2 of the Order is that a member of an English local authority may not refer to the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee any matter relating to a licensing decision or a planning decision (both defined in article 1(3)); a matter relating to an individual or entity where there is already a statutory right to a review or appeal (other than the right to complain to the Commission for Local Administration – commonly known as the Local Government Ombudsman); or a matter which is vexatious, discriminatory or not reasonable to be included on the agenda for, or to be discussed at, a meeting of an overview and scrutiny committee or any of its sub-committees.

Article 3 provides that a matter which consists of an allegation of systematic failure of an authority to discharge a function for which the authority is responsible may be referred to an overview and scrutiny committee, notwithstanding the fact that the allegation specifies matters which would otherwise be excluded by virtue of article 2.