Committee structure

The full council, involving all 42 councillors, meets approximately four times a year, alongside an Annual meeting.  There are decisions that only full council can make and these include setting budgets and spending programmes, setting council tax levels and approving major policies and priorities.

The 'Leader and Cabinet' model of decision-making, first adopted in 2001, is similar to national government.  

The Council appoints the Leader of the Council (usually a member of the group with the political majority) and he or she appoints up to nine other Councillors (usually of the same political group as the Leader) to serve with the Leader on the Cabinet.  One of the Cabinet Members may be appointed Deputy Leader.  The Cabinet Members assume responsibility for different key areas of local governance. 

The Cabinet is responsible for running the Council services and ensuring best value is delivered, implementing policies and delivering services, approving new policies other than major policies, playing a leadership role within and generally promoting the economic, environmental and social well-being of the city.

The responsibility for decisions has transferred to the Council's Executive which consists of the Cabinet and individual Cabinet members.

The leader publishes a rolling program outlining the 'key decisions' likely to be taken over the next few months and can include items due to be taken later in the Municipal Year.   This is called the Forward Plan. 

The remit of scrutiny committees is to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability in local government.

An executive councillor is responsible for taking key decisions about services.

To balance the Executive's powers, scrutiny committees are responsible for advising and reviewing decisions.

The hold the Executive to account to make sure the best decisions are taken for the council and local residents.

Scrutiny committees consist of non-executive councillors. Their composition reflects the political balance of the council.

By law, some decisions and functions cannot be exercised by the Executive. These are usually referred to as regulatory decisions.

The council has allocated responsibility for regulatory decisions between the following committees and subcommittees.