County Council – 16 December 2016

Agenda Item 7(b) – Notice of Motion by Mr Glennon

Proportional Representation

A system of proportional representation uses a basic principle of electing more than one representative for an electoral area and using the proportion of votes cast for each party to elect a proportionate number of candidates. Different forms of proportional representation allow voters to vote for a party or an individual.

The form of used in the UK Parliament and in local government within the UK is the ‘first past the post’ system, whereby whichever candidate has the most votes in the electoral area wins in that area. This is either for single constituencies, divisions or wards (such as Parliament), or may be multi-member divisions or wards, where the two or three candidates with the most votes received will win.

Some UK use forms of proportional representation, including the proportional representation ‘’ in European Parliamentary elections and the supplementary vote system used in directly elected mayoral elections and police and crime commissioner elections.

Some use a combination of ‘first past the post’ and proportional representation (Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, London Assembly). In the ‘’ used in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, each voter has two votes. The first is used to vote for a named candidate for that constituency (as happens in ‘first past the post’). The second vote is for a political party in a regional area. Candidates from those political party lists are appointed in proportion to the number of votes cast.

In the Scottish Parliamentary election, the second vote counts towards the election of seven regional Members of the Scottish Parliament on a proportional basis. There are individual 73 constituencies. There are eight regions, each electing seven regionals MSPs, so an additional 56 seats in total.

In the Welsh Parliament, the second vote counts towards the election of four Assembly members on a proportional basis. There are 40 individual constituencies. There are five regions, each electing four regionals AM, so an additional 20 seats in total.

It would be for Parliament to legislate any change in any of these electoral systems.

In 2011, a UK-wide referendum was held, which asked whether the voting system should be changed to the alternative transferable vote system. The national results were that 67.9% voted ‘no’ and 32.1% ‘yes’. In the South East region, the result was 70.32% voting ‘no’ and 29.68% ‘yes’.

Formal committees of the County Council have to be appointed via a system of

political proportionality, as introduced in the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. This ensures that committee allocations reflect the political make-up of the Council and must be reviewed after any by-elections or changes in individual political affiliation. At West Sussex, the proportionality rules are applied to non- executive committees and select committees. Most of the Council’s other major sub-committees, panels and boards are also appointed to reflect the political make-up of the Council, or to at least ensure that there is at least one minority group member represented on the panel or board even though this is not required.

Task and Finish Groups (TFGs) are informal working groups to which the formal political proportionality rules do not apply. It is in the gift of the County Council to determine how the membership of a TFG is appointed and this could be amended by the County Council if it so chose. Currently in the Constitution, the rules are set out in Part 8, Section 11, that TFGs ‘shall comprise no more than seven members (cross-party)’. If the Council were minded to extend proportionality rules to these member groups it would be expected that the allocation would be by reference to the proportion of members within the different groups at the relevant point in time (and so consistent with other arrangements) rather than by reference to votes cast to political parties in the last Council elections.

Tony Kershaw Director of Law and Assurance