Tower Hamlets Constitution

This Scheme shall be called The London Borough of Tower Hamlets Members’ Allowances Scheme 2025 and it shall come into effect on 1 April 2025. The Scheme shall apply to the Mayor, Councillors and Co-opted Members of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Subject to paragraph 8, a basic allowance of £11,898 shall be paid to each Councillor for each year. The Basic Allowance shall not be payable to the elected Mayor.

The basic allowance of £11,898 shall be payable with effect from 1 April 2025.

Subject to paragraphs 5-8, a special responsibility allowance shall be paid for each year to those Members who hold a position of special responsibility as specified in Schedule 1.

The amount of each such allowance shall be the amount specified against the respective special responsibility in Schedule 1 and it shall be payable with effect from 1 April 2025.

Any special responsibility allowance payable under paragraphs 4 and 5 shall be in addition to the basic allowance payable under paragraph 2 above.

Any Member who holds more than one position of special responsibility shall receive only one special responsibility allowance which shall be at the higher level.

If, in the course of the year, this scheme is amended or a Member’s entitlement changes, the relevant basic and/or special responsibility allowance shall be calculated and paid pro-rata during the particular month in which the scheme amendment or entitlement change occurs.

A maximum of £13.85 per hour shall be paid to those Members who necessarily incur expense in arranging for the care of their children or other dependants to enable them to undertake any of the activities specified in Schedule 2 to this Scheme.

The following conditions shall apply:

• payments shall be claimable for children aged 15 or under or for other dependants where there is medical or social work evidence that care is required;

• only one weekly payment shall be claimable for the household of each Member, unless the Council’s Standards Advisory Committee considers there are special circumstances;

• the allowance shall be paid as a re-imbursement of incurred expenditure against receipts;

• the allowance shall not be payable to a member of the claimant’s own household;

• any dispute as to entitlement and any allegation of abuse shall be referred to the Council’s Standards Advisory Committee for adjudication.

An allowance shall be paid to any Member for travelling and subsistence undertaken outside the Borough in connection with any of the duties specified in Schedule 2.

An allowance shall be paid to a co-opted member of a Committee, Sub-Committee or Panel of the Council for travelling and subsistence in connection with any of the duties specified in Schedule 2, irrespective of whether the meeting or duty is inside or outside the Borough.

The amounts payable shall be the amounts which are for the time being payable to officers of the Council for travelling and subsistence undertaken in the course of their duties.

Subject to paragraph 16, a co-opted member of the Standards Advisory Committee, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee or any of its Sub-Committees, may claim a co-optee allowance of £136 and a co-opted member who is appointed as Chair of the Standards Advisory Committee may claim a co-optee allowance of £272, for attendance at any meeting of the Committee or the Panel or attendance at any conference or mandatory training event, where attendance is on behalf of and authorised by the Council.

A claim for co-optees’ allowance shall be made in writing within two months from the date of attendance at the meeting, conference or training event.

Where a member is suspended or partially suspended from his or her responsibilities or duties as a co-opted member under Part III of the Local Government Act 2000, any co-optee’s allowance payable to him or her for the period for which he or she is suspended or partially suspended, may be withheld by the Council.

All Members shall continue to receive their Basic Allowance in full in the case of maternity, paternity, adoption and sickness leave.

Members entitled to a Special Responsibility Allowance shall continue to receive their allowance in the case of maternity, paternity, adoption and sickness leave in the same way that the Council’s employees enjoy such benefits.

If a replacement to cover the period of absence is appointed by Council or the Mayor (or in the case of party group position, the party group) the replacement will be entitled to claim a Special Responsibility Allowance.

Any allowance that has been paid to a Member after he or she has ceased to be a member of the Council, or is for some other reason not entitled to receive the allowance for a specified period, may be recovered.

Payments shall be made for basic and special responsibility allowances in instalments of one-twelfth of the amounts respectively specified in this Scheme, paid on the last working day of each month.

Where a payment of one-twelfth of the amount specified in this Scheme for a basic or special responsibility allowance will result in the Member receiving more than the amount to which he or she is entitled, the payment shall be restricted to such amount as will ensure that no more is paid than the amount to which he or she is entitled.

A claim for travelling and subsistence or dependants’ carers’ allowance;

• shall be made in writing within two months from the date of the performance of the duty for which the claim is made;

• shall be accompanied by receipts and/or any relevant evidence of the costs incurred;

• shall be subject to such validation and accounting procedures as the Council’s Corporate Director, Resources may from time to time prescribe.

Travelling and subsistence and dependants’ carers’ allowance shall be paid on the last working day of each month for any claim received not less than 21 days before that date.

Neither members nor co-opted members of the Council are eligible to join the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Local Government Pension Scheme.

The Council shall keep a record of payments made by it under this Scheme, including the name of the recipients of the payment and the amount and nature of each payment.

The record of the payments made by the Council under this Scheme shall be available at all reasonable times for inspection at no charge. A copy shall also be supplied to any person who requests it on payment of a reasonable fee.

As soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the year to which this Scheme relates, the Council shall make arrangements to publish the total sums paid by it to each recipient for each different allowance.

A copy of the Scheme shall be supplied to any person who requests it on payment of a reasonable fee.

A member may at any time and for any period, by notice in writing given to the Chief Executive, elect to forego any part of their entitlement to an allowance under this Scheme.

In this scheme:

• “Councillor” means an elected member of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets who is a councillor;

• “Mayor” means the elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets Council;

• “Member” means any person who is either the Mayor, a Councillor or a co-opted member of Tower Hamlets Council;

• “Co-opted member” refers to persons who are not Councillors but who sit on a Committee, Sub-Committee or Panel of the Council. The exact definition to be used in this scheme is that set out in the Member Code of Conduct (Constitution, Part H, Section xx);

• “Year” means the 12 months ending on 31 March in any year.

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets Members’ Allowance Scheme 2024 is hereby revoked and replaced with the Tower Hamlets Members’ Allowances Scheme 2025.

The following are specified as the special responsibilities for which special responsibility allowances are payable and the amounts of those allowances:

The duties for which these allowances are payable include:

• the attendance at a meeting of the Council or of any committee or sub-committee of the Council or of any other body to which the Council makes appointments or nominations, or of any committee or sub-committee of such a body;

• the attendance at any other meeting, the holding of which is authorised by the Council, or a committee or sub-committee of the Council, or a joint committee of 270(1) of the Local Government Act 1972, or a sub-committee of such a joint committee, provided that –

  • where the Council is divided into two or more political groups it is a meeting to which members of at least two such groups have been invited; or

  • if the Council is not so divided, it is a meeting to which at least two members of the Council have been invited

• the attendance at a meeting of any association of authorities of which the Council is a member;

• the attendance at a meeting of the Cabinet or a meeting of any of its committees, where the Council is operating executive arrangements;

• the performance of any duty in pursuance of any standing order under section 135 of the Local Government Act 1972 requiring a member or members to be present while tender documents are opened;

• the performance of any duty in connection with the discharge of any function of the Council conferred by or under any enactment and empowering or requiring the Council to inspect or authorise the inspection of premises.

• the performance of any duty in connection with arrangements made by the Council for the attendance of pupils at any school approved for the purposes of section 342 of the Education Act 1996 (approval of non-maintained special schools); and

• the carrying out of any other duty approved by the Council, or any duty of a class so approved, for the purpose of, or in connection with, the discharge of the functions of the Council or any of its committees or sub-committees.