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| | Terms of appointment and remuneration |
| | 2 (1) The members of the Commission shall hold and vacate office in accordance with the terms of their respective appointments. |
| (2) | The remuneration of the members of the Commission shall be as set out in writing in the terms of their respective appointments. |
| | 3 (1) An appointment of a person to hold office as a member of the Commission shall be for a term not exceeding three years. |
| (2) | A person holding office as a member of the Commission— |
| (a) | may resign that office by giving notice in writing to the Secretary of State, and |
| (b) | may be removed from office by the Secretary of State on the ground of incapacity or misbehaviour. |
| (3) | Before removing a member of the Commission the Secretary of State shall consult the Commission. |
| (4) | No person may hold office as a member of the Commission for more than six years in total. |
| | 4 (1) The Commission may appoint such staff as it may determine. |
| (2) | The Commission may establish committees and any committee of the Commission may establish sub-committees. |
| (3) | The members of a committee of the Commission may include persons who are not members of the Commission (and the members of a sub-committee may include persons who are not members of the committee or of the Commission). |
| | 5 (1) The Commission may regulate its own procedures (including quorum). |
| (2) | The validity of anything done by the Commission is not affected by a vacancy among its members. |
| | 6 (1) The Commission shall undertake or promote studies designed to enable it to prepare reports including, but not limited to, of the following topics— |
| (a) | the actual costs, or the likely future costs, of the operation by English local authorities of any particular statutory provision or provisions; |
| (b) | the actual costs, or the likely future costs, incurred or to be incurred by English local authorities in complying with any directions or guidance given by a Minister of the Crown (whether pursuant to any such provision or otherwise) as to the conduct or management of services; |
| (c) | the costs of the matters described in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) above compared with any funding granted or proposed to be granted to English local authorities either specifically in relation to those matters or generally; |
| (d) | the evidence available on the scope for further efficiency in the delivery of services provided by English local authorites, and what might be reasonable assumptions about the cost and impact of changes designed to increase efficiency; |
| (e) | the effectiveness of the mechanisms by which funding is made available to, or raised by, English local authorites in enabling them to discharge their functions; and |
| (f) | the basis of distribution of grants to English local authorities payable under Part V of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (c. 41) (grants) or Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 (c. 26) (power to pay grant). |
| (2) | The Commission may require any Minister of the Crown, or any English local authority, to provide the Commission or a person authorised by it with all such information as the Commission or that person may reasonably require for the discharge of its functions, including the carrying out of any study under sub-paragraph (1). |
| (3) | The Commission shall publish or otherwise make available its report of the results of any study under this paragraph, and shall send a copy of any such report to the Secretary of State and to the Comptroller and Auditor General. |
| (4) | The Secretary of State shall within three months of receiving a report from the Commission present a report to Parliament giving the Government's response to that report. |
| (5) | Where the Comptroller and Auditor General has received a copy of any such report he may, subject to sub-paragraph (6), require the Commission to provide him with any information obtained by it in connection with the preparation of the report, and for that purpose the Commission shall permit any person authorised by him to inspect and make copies of any documents containing such informtion. |
| (6) | No information shall be required by the Comptroller and Auditor General under this section in respect of any particular body. |
| (7) | The Comptroller and Auditor General shall from time to time lay before the House of Commons a report of any matters which, in his opinion, arise out of studies of the Commission or responses by the Government under this paragraph and ought to be drawn to the attention of that House. |
| | 7 Anything authorised or required to be done by the Commission may be done by |
| (a) | any member or member of staff of the Commission who is authorised for that purpose by the Commission, whether generally or specially; |
| (b) | any committee of the Commission which has been so authorised. |
| | 8 (1) As soon as practicable after the end of each financial year the Commission shall publish a report on the discharge of its functions and the management of its affairs during that year. |
| (2) | The Commission shall lay a copy of each such report before Parliament. |
| (3) | In sub-paragraph (1) above, "financial year" means— |
| (a) | the period beginning with the date on which the Commission is established and ending with the 31st March following that date, and |
| (b) | each successive period of 12 months ending with 31st March. |
| | 9 (1) It shall be the duty of the Commission so to manage its affairs that its income from fees and othrwise will, taking one year with another, be not less than its expenditure properly chargeable to its income and expenditure account. |
| (2) | The Commission may borrow such sums as it may require for the purpose of meeting its obligations and discharging its functions. |
| (3) | In order to enable it to discharge its functions, the Secretary of State shall pay to the Commission on the date on which the Commission is established and at the start of each succeeding financial year a grant equal to at least 0.02 per cent of his estimate of the total Council tax precepted by English local authorites for the immediately preceding financial year. |
| (4) | The Commission may undertake work at the request of any English local authority and where so requested shall charge that English local authority a fee sufficient to cover the Commission's costs for that work. |
| | 10 In this Schedule "English local authorities" has the meaning given by section 47A of the Audit Commission Act 1998 (c. 18). |
| | 11 (1) The following consequential provision apply. |
| (2) | In part 2 of Schedule 1 to the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 (c. 24) (bodies of which all members are disqualified) insert at the appropriate place— |
| | "The Independent Commission on Local Government Finance for England". |
| (3) | In part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Northern Ireland Assembly Disqualification Act 1975 (c. 25) (bodies of which all members are disqualified) insert at the appropriate place— |
| | "The Indpendent Commission on Local Government Finance for England". |
| 253 | Page 172, line 18, leave out from "omit" to end of line 20 |
| 254 | Page 176, line 11, leave out from "for" to end of line 13 and insert "", section 58 of the Local Government Act 1972 or section 17 of the Local Government Act 1992" substitute "or section 58 of the Local Government Act 1972"" |
| 254A | Page 176, leave out lines 22 to 27 and insert— |
| | "This Act shall have effect as if the amendments of the Local Government Act 1992 made by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 had not been made."" |
| 255 | Leave out Schedule 3 and insert the following new Schedule— |
| | ALTERNATIVE VOTE SYSTEM: AMENDMENTS |
| | After Schedule 2 to the Local Government Act 2000 (c. 22) there is inserted— |
| | 1 This Schedule applies in the election for an elected executive where there are three or more proposed executives. |
| | 2 Each voter shall have one transferable vote. |
| | 3 (1) A voter must place the figure 1 against the proposed executive he or she wishes to vote for (the "first preference"). |
| (2) | A voter may indicate the order of his or her preferences for as many other proposed executives as he or she pleases by placing against their respective names the numbers 2, 3, 4 and so on. |
| | 4 (1) The returning officer shall examine the papers and shall sort them into parcels according to the first preference recorded for each proposed executive, rejecting any that are invalid and he shall count the papers in each such parcel and shall credit each proposed executive with a number of votes equal to the number of valid papers on which a first preference has been recorded for that candidate. |
| (2) | If the vote for any one proposed executive equals or exceeds the votes of all other candidates combined, that candidate shall be declared elected. |
| (3) | If no candidate has been declared elected, the returning officer shall exclude together the two or more proposed executives with the least votes if the total vote of such two or more proposed executives does not exceed the vote of the proposed executives next above, otherwise he shall exclude the proposed executives having the fewest votes. |
| (4) | The papers of the excluded proposed executives shall be transferred to whichever of the continuing proposed executives is marked by that voter as the next available preference, and the votes thus transferred shall be added to the first preference votes of those proposed executives. |
| (5) | Any paper on which no further preference is marked, or where there is uncertainty as the voter's intention, shall be set aside as non-transferable and the total of such papers shall be recorded. |
| (6) | When the vote for any one proposed executive equals or exceeds the votes of all other proposed executives combined, that proposed executive shall be declared elected at that stage. |
| (7) | If when a proposed executive has to be excluded, two or more proposed executives have each the same number of votes and are lowest on the poll, the proposed executives with the lowest number of votes at the earliest stage in the count at which the proposed executives in question had an unequal number of votes shall be excluded. |
| (8) | If two or more proposed executives are still equal and lowest, the returning officer is to decide by lot which of them is to be excluded at that stage. |
| (9) | "Next available preference" means a second or subsequent preference recorded in consecutive numerical order for a proposed executive who has not yet been excluded, passing over earlier preferences for proposed executives already excluded."." |
| 255A | Page 178, line 15, at end insert— |
| | "Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) |
| | 1 The Local Government Act 1972 is amended as follows. |
| | 2 (1) Section 3 (chairman) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | For subsection (4A) substitute— |
| "(4A) | In relation to a district council which are operating relevant executive arrangements, subsection (4) shall have effect as if it provided for the senior executive member to have precedence in the district; but this subsection shall not apply if the relevant executive arrangements provide for it not to apply. |
| | "relevant executive arrangements" means arrangements which involve— |
| (a) | a mayor and cabinet executive, or |
| (b) | an elected executive; |
| | "senior executive member" means— |
| (a) | in the case of a mayor and cabinet executive: the elected mayor; |
| (b) | in the case of an elected executive: the elected leader." |
| | 3 (1) Section 70 (restriction on promotion of Bills) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In subsection (3) after "elected mayor" insert "or elected executive". |
| | 4 (1) Section 79 (qualifications for election and holding office) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In subsection (1) after "elected mayor" insert "or a member of an elected executive". |
| | 5 (1) Section 80 (disqualification for election and holding office) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In subsection (1) after "elected mayor" insert "or a member of an elected executive". |
| | 6 (1) Section 82 (validity of acts done by unqualified persons) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In subsection (1) after "executive leader" insert "or as a member of an elected executive". |
| | 7 (1) Section 83 (declaration of acceptance of office) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In subsection (1) for "or elected mayor" substitute ", elected mayor or member of the elected executive". |
| | 8 (1) Section 84 (resignation) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In subsection (1) after "elected mayor" insert "or as a member of an elected executive". |
| | 9 (1) Section 85 (vacation of office by failure to attend meetings) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In subsection (2B)(b) after "mayor and cabinet executive" insert "or elected executive". |
| | 10 (1) Section 270 (general provisions as to interpretation) is amended as follows |
| (2) | In subsection (1) for the definition of "leader and cabinet executive" substitute— |
| | ""leader and cabinet executive" means— |
| (a) | in relation to England: a leader and cabinet executive (England); |
| (b) | in relation to Wales: a leader and cabinet executive (Wales);". |
| (3) | In subsection (1) insert the following definitions at the appropriate places— |
| | ""elected executive" has the same meaning as in Part 2 of the Local Government Act 2000;" |
| | ""elected leader" has the same meaning as in Part 2 of the Local Government Act 2000;" |
| | ""leader and cabinet executive (England) has the same meaning as in Part 2 of the Local Government Act 2000;" |
| | ""leader and cabinet executive (Wales) has the same meaning as in Part 2 of the Local Government Act 2000;". |
| | 11 (1) Schedule 2 (constitution and membership of London borough councils) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In paragraph 5B (constitution of council operating mayoral executive) omit "or a mayor and council manager executive". |
| | 12 (1) Schedule 12 (meetings and proceedings of local authorities) is amended as follows. |
| (2) | In paragraph 5(5) (who presides over meeting of council operating mayoral executive) omit "or a mayor and council manager executive". |
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