The Committee considered a report that outlined proposed arrangements to follow the upcoming departure of the Assistant Director of Legal and Democratic Services in December 2025.  The post currently incorporated three statutory officer roles of Monitoring Officer, Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer. 

The report explained that the Council had been advised that there was a challenging market for the recruitment of Monitoring Officers.  To safeguard against this and to ensure continuity of cover, it was proposed to make an interim appointment for the role of Assistant Director and Monitoring Officer.  Recruitment for a permanent replacement would then begin in early 2026.  However, with elections scheduled for May 2026, it was considered that it would not be appropriate for these to be managed by an interim officer, and the report therefore proposed that the Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer roles be allocated to the Executive Director of Resources.  The appointments would need to be formally approved at a meeting of Council.  The report also noted that the Council could revisit the permanent arrangements for elections should it wish to, once it had been able to recruit to the substantive Monitoring Officer position.

Resolved:

(1)      That the proposed interim arrangements and recruitment process for the Assistant Director of Legal and Democratic Services/Monitoring Officer be noted;

(2)      That the appointment of the Executive Director of Resources as Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer be recommended to Council.