How will the Minister ensure that all local councils are fairly represented in corporate joint committees?
The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 provides that when Corporate Joint Committees are established, the senior executive members of the principal councils in a region must be members. In most cases this will be the Leader of the principal council, but it might also be the mayor if a principal council operates under a mayor and cabinet model.
The leaders will be making the decisions within the CJC on behalf of the councils they are elected to represent. The default position for a CJC’s voting procedures is ‘one member one vote’. However, once established, CJCs will be able to adopt alternative voting procedures should they wish to do so.
All CJCs will be scrutinised by their constituent councils, will be required to participate in local scrutiny and have due regard to the recommendations made by the scrutiny committees of all its constituent councils.