Tower Hamlets Council Constitution

Tower Hamlets Constitution — A Guide for Councillors

This is a working guide for Councillors and Co-opted Members. It covers the things you need to know to do the job: what you can decide, what you have to declare, how to put things on agendas, how to scrutinise, and how to stay on the right side of the Code of Conduct.

It is not the rulebook. The full Constitution is authoritative — if anything below conflicts with it, the Constitution wins. When in doubt, ask the Monitoring Officer.

What can I decide?

Tower Hamlets uses a Mayor and Cabinet model. Decisions fall into two categories under the rules on decision-making:

  • Executive decisions belong to the Mayor. The Mayor may keep them, take them at Cabinet, or delegate them to a Cabinet Member, a Cabinet Sub-Committee, an officer, or joint arrangements. See the Mayor's Executive Scheme of Delegation for who currently holds what.
  • Non-Executive decisions are reserved to Council or its committees — including the budget, the policy framework, byelaws, the Members' Allowances Scheme, the Code of Conduct, and most planning and licensing decisions.

If you are not on Cabinet, you have no individual decision-making power as a Councillor. Your influence is through Council, Committees, Scrutiny, motions, questions, and representing your ward.

Key Decisions and the Forward Plan

A "Key Decision" is an Executive decision that either:

  • spends or saves over £1 million revenue or £5 million capital; or
  • significantly affects communities in two or more wards.

Key Decisions must be published on the Forward Plan at least 28 clear days before they are taken, with the agenda and reports available five clear working days before any meeting. Shortcuts ("general exception" or "special urgency") exist but require the consent of the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny — use them only when genuinely needed.

Attendance — what you must do

Under section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972, you must attend at least one relevant meeting (Council, Cabinet, Committee, Sub-Committee or external appointment) in any six-month period. Miss six months without permission and you stop being a Councillor.

If you can't avoid an absence — illness, bereavement, caring — write to the Chief Executive in advance asking for a dispensation. Council can only grant one for exceptional reasons, and only before the six months runs out.

The Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct for Members applies the moment you sign your declaration of acceptance and keeps applying until you cease to be a Member. It covers everything you do as a Councillor: meetings, emails, social media, telephone calls, ward work.

The Code is built on the seven Nolan principles — selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. In practice, the things that get Members into trouble are usually:

  • Personal attacks on other Members, officers or the public (instead of robust debate on policy).
  • Bullying, harassment or discrimination.
  • Pressuring officers to change advice, or to give you or your contacts special treatment.
  • Disclosing confidential or exempt information.
  • Failing to register or declare interests.
  • Using Council resources (rooms, phones, email, IT) for personal, business or party-political purposes.

Interests — registering and declaring

Within 28 days of taking office (and within 28 days of any change), you must register your interests with the Monitoring Officer. The Code lists what counts: Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (job, contracts with the council, land, licences, tenancies, shareholdings, sponsorship) and Other Registerable Interests (bodies you control, charities, political parties, organisations you are appointed to).

Failing to register or disclose a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is a criminal offence under the Localism Act 2011.

At meetings, the rules are:

  • Disclosable Pecuniary Interest — declare it, don't speak, don't vote, leave the room.
  • Other Registerable Interest — declare it. You may speak only if members of the public can speak. Otherwise leave the room. You can't vote.
  • Non-Registerable Interest (your or a close associate's financial interest or wellbeing) — declare it. If it affects you more than most residents in the ward, follow the Registerable Interest rules. Otherwise you can take part as normal.
  • Sensitive interest — if disclosing the detail could put you or your family at risk, tell the Monitoring Officer. If they agree, the detail stays off the public register.

Dispensations exist but are rare. If in doubt, apply the precautionary principle and ask the Monitoring Officer before the meeting.

Getting something on an agenda

Three main routes at Ordinary Council, set out in the Council Procedure Rules:

  • Motions on notice — written, signed by you and a seconder, with the Monitoring Officer by noon, nine clear working days before the meeting. One motion per Member per meeting. Ungrouped Members can submit without a seconder.
  • Questions to the Mayor, Lead Member or Committee Chair — same nine clear working days deadline. One question (plus one supplementary) per Member. 30-minute slot at the meeting.
  • Amendments to motions — moved at the meeting, but for an Administration or Opposition Motion debate, written notice to the Monitoring Officer by noon the day before.

To rescind a decision the Council has taken in the past six months, or move a motion in similar terms to one already rejected, you need 20 signatures. To trigger a recorded vote at a meeting you need 20 Members to request it before the vote is taken.

Call-in: pausing an Executive decision

When the Mayor, Cabinet, a Cabinet Member or an officer takes an Executive decision, it is published and doesn't take effect for five clear working days. During that window, five Councillors (or two voting church, faith or parent governor reps on education matters) can ask the Monitoring Officer to "call in" the decision for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to look at again.

The request must be in writing, give reasons, and propose an alternative. The Monitoring Officer cannot call in regulatory decisions, day-to-day officer decisions, decisions that have already been called in, or decisions marked urgent (with the agreement of the Overview and Scrutiny Chair).

Once called in, the decision is suspended until Scrutiny meets. Scrutiny can refer it back to the decision-maker with concerns, or to Council if it goes outside the budget and policy framework.

Scrutiny — what it can and can't do

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee is the main check on the Executive. Any Councillor who is not a Cabinet Member can sit on it. Cabinet Members cannot.

Scrutiny can require the Mayor, any Member or any senior officer to attend and give account. Failure to attend without good reason is treated as a breach of the Code of Conduct (for Members) or a disciplinary matter (for officers).

Scrutiny can recommend, but it cannot overturn Executive decisions. It refers them back. The Executive must consider the report and respond within two months. The party whip should not be used to direct how a Scrutiny Member votes.

Any Councillor can refer a "local government matter" affecting their ward to Scrutiny under the Councillor Call for Action procedure (with exclusions for planning, licensing and individual appeals).

Working with officers

The Member/Officer Relations Protocol is the rule of the road. The main points:

  • Officers serve the Council as a whole and must stay politically neutral. You can question them and challenge their advice, but you cannot direct or coerce them to change it.
  • Send constituent enquiries through the Member Enquiries system — not to junior officers directly. The standard response time is 10 working days.
  • Non-routine or policy issues go to the relevant Corporate Director or Director.
  • If you are unhappy with an officer's conduct, raise it privately with their Director or the Chief Executive — not in public.
  • You have a "Need to Know" right to confidential and exempt information that is reasonably necessary for your role. It is not a fishing licence.

Allowances and expenses

The Members' Allowances Scheme (effective 1 April 2025) pays each Councillor a Basic Allowance of £11,898. The Mayor is not paid the Basic Allowance — they receive a Special Responsibility Allowance of £81,579. Other Special Responsibility Allowances include:

  • Cabinet Member — £21,754
  • Deputy Mayor — £32,631
  • Speaker of Council — £10,877
  • Chair of Overview and Scrutiny — £11,965
  • Chair of Development / Strategic Development — £11,965
  • Chair of Audit, Licensing, Pensions or HR — £6,526

If you hold more than one role with a Special Responsibility Allowance, you get the higher one only — not both. You can also claim a dependants' carers' allowance, plus travel and subsistence outside the borough, on receipts. You may forego any part of your allowance by writing to the Chief Executive.

You can't join the Local Government Pension Scheme as a Councillor.

If a complaint is made about you

Complaints alleging a breach of the Code go in writing to the Monitoring Officer through the conduct complaints procedure. The Monitoring Officer will tell you about the complaint within five working days. You have 10 working days to respond.

The Monitoring Officer then decides, in consultation with the Independent Person, whether to investigate, attempt informal resolution, or reject the complaint. An investigation should normally finish within three months. If the Hearings Advisory Sub-Committee finds a breach, sanctions can range from training, censure or apology up to recommendations that you be removed from Committees, the Cabinet, or outside appointments. Council or the Mayor implements those removals; disqualification from being a Councillor sits outside this procedure and is governed by statute (criminal conviction, bankruptcy, six-month non-attendance, etc.). You have a right to make submissions and to be heard.

If you think the complaint is politically motivated, "tit for tat" or out of time (more than six months), say so in your response — the Monitoring Officer can reject on those grounds.

Access to documents and information

As a Councillor you have three layers of access, set out in the Access to Information Procedure Rules and the Member/Officer Protocol:

Anything you receive on a "Need to Know" basis must only be used for that purpose. Onward disclosure can itself be a Code of Conduct breach.

Challenging the Mayor's budget proposal

Only Council can adopt the budget and the policy framework. The Mayor proposes; Council disposes — but with a constraint. If you want to amend the Mayor's budget or framework proposal:

  1. At the first Council meeting on it, a simple majority can send it back to the Mayor with objections.
  2. The Mayor has at least five working days to reconsider and re-submit (amended or not).
  3. At the second meeting, to amend the Mayor's revised proposal you need a two-thirds majority of Members present and voting. If you don't get two-thirds, the Mayor's proposals stand adopted.

Notice of budget amendments must reach the Monitoring Officer by 5pm on the Friday before the Budget Meeting. Late amendments need a stated urgency reason and the advice of the Monitoring Officer, S151 Officer and Chief Executive.

Where to go for the detail

  • Full Council Constitution — the authoritative source.
  • Search the Constitution for specific procedures.
  • The Monitoring Officer — your first call on conduct, interests, propriety and Constitution interpretation.
  • Democratic Services: democratic.services@towerhamlets.gov.uk — for agendas, motions, questions, petitions, training.
  • Member Support Team — for surgeries, learning and development, and day-to-day diary support.
  • LGA guidance on the Model Code — referenced throughout the Code of Conduct, useful for worked examples on interests and conduct.