This Supplementary Order Paper amends the Local Government Electoral Legislation Bill.

These amendments provide for members of a local authority or committee who attend meetings remotely to be counted towards a quorum under clause 23 of Schedule 7 of the Local Government Act 2002.

These amendments replace similar temporary measures that were established in response to COVID-19 and severe weather events and that are due to expire at the end of September 2024. However, whereas the temporary measures provide that all members of local authorities and their committees are entitled to attend meetings remotely and that any remote attendance will count towards a meeting’s quorum, these amendments would, from the beginning of October 2024, leave it to individual local authorities to decide in their standing orders whether remote attendance is allowed, with remote attendance counting towards a meeting’s quorum only if the standing orders allow remote attendance.