PART 6 WOVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY

CHAPTER 2W [F1GOVERNANCE AND] AUDIT COMMITTEES

82MembershipW

(1)A local authority is to appoint the members of its [F2governance and] audit committee.

(2)A local authority must secure that—

(a)F3... two-thirds of the members of [F4that committee] are members of the authority;

[F5(b)one-third of the members of that committee are lay persons;]

(c)no more than one of the members of [F6that committee] is a member of the authority's executive [F7(but see subsection (8))] [F8or an assistant to its executive];

(d)the senior member of its executive is not a member of [F9that committee].

(3)Subsection (2)(c) does not require the membership of a local authority's [F10governance and] audit committee to include a member of the authority's executive [F11or an assistant to its executive].

(4)The appointment of a person as a member of [F12a governance and] audit committee has no effect if the membership of the committee breaches subsection (2) immediately after the appointment (whether or not by virtue of the appointment).

(5)In a case where one or more persons are to become, or to cease to be, members of [F13a governance and] audit committee at a particular time, all those changes of membership are to be taken into account in determining whether the membership of the committee breaches subsection (2).

[F14(5A)A governance and audit committee is to appoint—

(a)a member of the committee as its chair (“the committee chair”), and

(b)a member of the committee as the deputy to the committee chair (“the deputy chair”).

(5B)The member appointed as the committee chair must be a lay person.

(5C)The member appointed as the deputy chair must not be a member of the local authority's executive or an assistant to its executive.]

F15(6). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[F16(7)[F17A governance and] audit committee is to be treated as a body to which section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (duty to allocate seats to political groups) applies.]

[F18(8)If two or more members of a local authority are appointed to the executive to share office, more than one of those members may be appointed to its governance and audit committee (and if they are so appointed, together they count as one executive member for the purposes of subsection (2)(c)).]