NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL

18 March 2026

Appointments to Committees According to Political Proportionality

Report of Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Democratic Services

1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT

1.1 To make recommendations for changes to the allocation of seats on and appointments to committees, subject to proportional representation due to recent political changes.

2.0 BACKGROUND

2.1 The changes to the political make-up of the Council that have occurred since the last Full Council Meeting on 13 February 2026, due to changes of political group/party, are as follows:

· Councillor John Mann formally moved from the Unaffiliated Independents on 9 March 2026 to the Reform UK group.

2.2 The number of Councillors by political group and party is now as shown below:

Political Group/Party	Councillors as of 13 February 2026	Current Position	Overall Change
Conservatives and Independents	45	45	No Change
Liberal Democrat and Liberals	14	14	No Change
Labour	10	10	No Change
NY Independents	7	7	No Change
Green and Independents	8	8	No Change
Independent (unaffiliated)	3	2	Loss of 1
Reform UK	3	4	Gain of 1
TOTAL	90	90

2.3 Due to the above changes and as requested, a new political proportionality calculation has been completed.

2.4 The reduction of the number of Unaffiliated Independent members from 3 to 2 means that their proportionality entitlement decreases from 3.33% to 2.22%. Reform UK have increased from 3 to 4 members and their proportionality entitlement, therefore, increases from 3.33% to 4.44%.

2.5 This results in the seat allocation on overall committees increasing from 7 to 10 for Reform UK and decreasing from 7 to 4 for Unaffiliated Independents, as below:

Political Group/Party	Total number of seats at 13 February 2026	Current Position	Overall change
Conservative and Independents	105	105	0
Liberal Democrat and Liberals	33	33	0
Labour	24	24	0
NY Independent	16	16	0
Green and Independents	18	18	0
Independent Unaffiliated (aggregated)	7	4	-3
Reform UK	7	10	+3
Total	210	210	0

2.6 The proportionality calculation, at Appendix 1, shows that the 3 seats due to be reallocated from the Unaffiliated Independents to Reform UK should come from the following committees: 2 seats on Scrutiny and Audit; and 1 seat on Ordinary Committees.

2.7 The 7 seats currently held by the Unaffiliated Independent are:

Scrutiny and Audit	Care and Independence OSC	Vacant
Scrutiny and Audit	Corporate and Partnerships OSC	Vacant
Scrutiny and Audit	Scrutiny of Health	Vacant
Scrutiny and Audit	Audit	Cllr Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff
Ordinary Committee	Pension Fund	Cllr Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff
Ordinary Committee	General Licensing x 2	Vacant x 2

3.0 HARROGATE AND KNARESBOROUGH AREA PLANNING COMMITTEE

3.1 The practice of rounding up and rounding down the mathematical proportionality calculation means that there are 8 seats through proportionality but only 7 seats on the committee. One of the political groups may wish to give up a seat to Reform UK or it could be decided by Council that Reform UK are not allocated a seat as their proportionate share is the lowest of all groups with representatives on the committee. See below:

Group	No of councillors in the area	Proportionality based upon 7 members	No of committee seats
Conservative and Independents	3	1.62	2
Liberal Democrats and Liberals	7	3.77	4
Labour	0	0.00	0
Green and Independents	2	1.08	1
NY Independent	0	0.00	0
Reform UK	1	0.54	1
Independent unaffiliated	0	0.00	0
Total	13	7.00	8

4.0 MAJOR OUTSIDE BODIES

4.1 The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 requires political proportionality to be applied to all outside bodies where the Council appoints three or more representatives. For North Yorkshire Council, this includes: the Police Fire and Crime Panel; the North York Moors National Park Authority; and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

4.2 The changes to political group membership has no impact upon the allocation of seats to Major Outside Bodies.

5.0 TREATMENT OF UNAFFILIATED INDEPENDENTS

5.1 The allocation of committee places must reflect the membership of the Council irrespective of whether councillors are in a political group, non-aligned or single party councillors. If some councillors are not members of a registered political group of the Council, then the Council must allocate these members a proportion of the committee places that are remaining after the political groups have expressed their wishes to the Council.

5.2 Whilst legally the statute provides allocations should be to political groups, the Local Government Association has taken the view that in the true spirit of the 1989 Act, that morally or democratically, councillors who are not members of a political group on the Council are entitled to fair representation. Political groups are not entitled to have more than their share under the proportionality rules. Thus, they cannot exclude councillors that

are not in a political group i.e. single party councillors or non-aligned independent councillors. Historically, the unaffiliated members have not taken all the seats allocated to them and some of these seats have been re-distributed to the groups.

6.0 POLITICAL BALANCE GUIDANCE

6.1 The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 introduced a requirement that certain appointments should be proportionate to the political composition of the Council.

6.2 The Council or the Committee must give effect to principles set out in the statutory provisions. The principles are:

1) All the seats must not be allocated to the same political group

2) The majority of the seats must be allocated to the political group (if any) that holds the majority of seats on the Council

3) Subject to 1) and 2), in the case of ordinary committees, the number of seats on the ordinary committees which are allocated to each political group must bear the same proportion to the total of all the seats on the ordinary committees as is borne by the number of members of that group to the membership of the Council.

6.3 Please note that “Ordinary Committees” of this Council are: Chief Officer Appointments and Disciplinary Committee; Employment Appeals Committee; Pension Fund Committee; Strategic Planning Committee; (Transport) Appeals Committee and Standards and Governance Committee.

6.4 Scrutiny committees and Audit are not “ordinary committees”.

6.5 This means that it is necessary to add up the total number of seats on all the ordinary committees. If a political group represents, for example, three quarters of the membership of the Council, it is entitled to three quarters of the total number of seats on all ordinary committees.

6.6 As a result, on some ordinary committees a political group may have more members than the application of the next principle would justify. It provides an allowance for the fact that calculating the proportion will not usually lead to whole numbers and so there will be rounding up and rounding down.

6.7 The duty on the Council is to give effect to these principles in so far as is reasonably practicable. This recognises that there cannot be an exact application of the rules.

6.8 Co-optees are not considered as part of calculating political balance except for any co-opted member with voting rights appointed to a committee with education functions under section 13(5) Local Government and Housing Act 1989 - see section 15 of that Act.

7.0 ADDITIONAL LOCAL CONSIDERATIONS

7.1 It is established practice that every Councillor, who is not on the Executive, has a place on either an Overview and Scrutiny committee or on the Audit Committee, where practicable.

7.2 During the period of this Council it has been the established practice to allocate 1 seat on Scrutiny and Audit committees and 1 seat on Ordinary Committees to each of the unaffiliated Independents. This is practice rather than a legal requirement.

8.0 COMMITTEE REVIEW

8.1 At the meeting of Full Council on 13 February 2026, the seats that Councillor John Mann previously occupied as a member of the Conservative and Independent group were not retained by the Conservative and Independents when he became an Unaffiliated Independent. Councillor John Mann continues to sit in the following Conservative and Independent seats:

· Scrutiny of Health

· Children and Families

· Housing and Leisure

· Development Plan Committee

· General Licensing

· Strategic Planning.

8.2 These seats now need to be appointed to by the Conservative and Independents.

9.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

9.1 In considering the proportionality calculations and analysis, it is recommended that the following changes be made to the allocation of seats on committees:

· Reform UK to gain an additional two seats on Scrutiny Committees from the Unaffiliated Independents - this would be a total of two seats from the following three committees (Care and Independence OSC, Corporate and Partnerships OSC and Scrutiny of Health)

· Reform UK gain an additional one seat Ordinary Committees from the Unaffiliated Independents - this would be the General Licensing and Registration Committee

· One of the political groups may wish to give up a seat to Reform UK on the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Planning Committee or it could be decided by Council that Reform UK are not allocated a seat as their proportionate share is the lowest of all groups with representatives on the committee

· The seats on the following committees that were previously allocated to Councillor John Mann when a member of the Conservative and Independent Group need to be appointed to the Conservative and Independent Group as these are retained by that political group: Scrutiny of Health; Children and Families OSC; Housing and Leisure OSC; Development Plan Committee; General Licensing; and Strategic Planning.

10.0 ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED

10.1 The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 introduced a requirement that certain appointments should be proportionate to the political composition of the Council and the Group need to consider a fair distribution of seats.

10.2 Alternative allocations could be made as long as they apply with the rules identified in paragraph 6.0. The proposals in paragraph 9.1 represents the application of these rules in so far as is reasonably practicable.

11.0 IMPLICATIONS

11.1 There are no financial, legal, equalities or climate change implications arising from this report.

12.0 REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

12.1 The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 introduced a requirement that certain appointments should be proportionate to the political composition of the Council. The changes to the political balance that resulted from change to political parties necessitate a review of the proportional allocation of seats.

13.0

RECOMMENDATIONS

That the allocation of seats is undertaken in accordance with proportionality rules as follows:

· Reform UK gain an additional one seat on Ordinary Committees from the Unaffiliated Independents - this would be the General Licensing and Registration Committee

Barry Khan

Assistant Chief Executive, Legal and Democratic Services

County Hall, Northallerton

Report author – Daniel Harry, Head of Democratic Services and Scrutiny North Yorkshire Council.

10 March 2026