Decision details

Adjournment of Public Meetings during the National Mourning period following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Decision Maker: Chief Executive Officer

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: No

Decision:

Under his emergency delegated decision-making powers in the Constitution the Chief Executive Officer has taken the decision to adjourn, to a future date, all formal public meetings of the Council and its committees due to be held during the national mourning period following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
By whom: Richard Flinton, Chief Executive Officer, under his emergency delegated powers.
PLEASE NOTE that this decision has been taken under the Special Urgency and Callin Exemption procedures and as such is not open to call-in

Reasons for the decision:

Following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II the country has entered into a national mourning period. In these circumstances it is considered appropriate out of respect to the Monarchy to adjourn any meeting open to the public during this period of mourning.
This means that the following meetings will be adjourned until after the mourning period:
1.Scrutiny of Health Committee adjourned from 9 September 2022.
2.Pension Fund Committee adjourned from 9 September 2022.
3.Appeals (Home to School Transport) Committee adjourned from 12 September 2022.
4.Corporate and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee adjourned from 12 September 2022.
5.Health and Wellbeing Board adjourned from 14 September 2022.
6.Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee adjourned from 15 September 2022.
7.Standards Committee adjourned from 16 September 2022.
The dates for when these meetings will be re-arranged will be announced in due course.
Under his delegated decision making powers in the Officers’ Delegation Scheme in the Council’s Constitution, the Chief Executive Officer has power, in cases of emergency, to take any decision which could be taken by the Council, the Executive or a committee. The current circumstances are deemed to be an emergency and therefore it is proposed to invoke these powers to adjourn scheduled meetings during the national mourning period.
The Council will continue to operate and make decisions as normal but these proposed adjournments will allow the Council to importantly, follow and respect the period of national mourning for Her Majesty.

Alternative options considered:

The Council could choose to continue to hold the meetings as scheduled but it is considered that this would not provide the appropriate level of respect to the national mourning period.

Publication date: 09/09/2022

Date of decision: 09/09/2022