F23: Constitutional Amendments and Standing Orders
Federal Board
Mover: Duncan Brack
Summation: Jeremy Hargreaves (Vice Chair, Federal Policy Committee).
Part 1: Committee membership
In clause 7.3, after 'Any member of a Committee' insert 'other than those individually specified in the Constitution', and delete 'without a good reason'.
Part 2: Special conferences
In clause 8.12, delete '200 members, in not fewer than 20 local parties' and insert '2% of members, in not less than 10% of local parties'.
Part 3: FIRC membership
In clause 14.2 (ii) (d), delete 'one representative of the Brussels and Europe local party' and insert 'one representative of Liberal Democrats Abroad'.
Part 4: Vice Presidents of the Party
Insert new clause 19.2:
19.2 The Vice Presidents of the Party shall be:
- the Chair of the English Liberal Democrats
- the Convenor of the Scottish Liberal Democrats
- the Chair of the NEC of the Welsh Liberal Democrats
- a Vice President responsible for working with BaME communities, elected by the Federal Board.
Part 5: Minor corrections to the Constitution
In clause 2.4, delete '(the Act)'.
In clause 2.7, delete 'The provisions of this clause' and insert 'The provisions of this article'.
In clause 2.7, delete 'the Act' and insert 'the Equality Act 2010'.
In clause 3.1, (b) delete 'As a Member of the Liberal Democrats you must' and insert 'Members of the Liberal Democrats must'.
In clause 3.1, (c) delete 'As a member of the Liberal Democrats you must' and insert 'Members of the Liberal Democrats must'.
In clause 3.6, delete apostrophe before 'any person' and insert full stop after 'Article 22'.
In clause 3.7, delete apostrophe before 'any person' and insert full stop after 'Article 22'.
In clause 4.3, delete '(a)', and replace '(i)' with '(a)' and '(ii)' with '(b)'.
In clause 5.3, after 'Federal People Development Committee' insert ', Federal International Relations Committee'.
In clause 6.2, (i) (b) delete 'or, if the Leader so decides or the post of Leader is vacant, the Deputy Leader'.
In clause 6.2, (c) delete 'a Chair' and insert 'the Chair'.
In clause 7.1, delete 'Each Committee may appoint one or more Vice Chairs to stand in for the Chair and to undertake such other tasks as the Committee may from time to time provide.' and insert this text as a new clause 7.2. Renumber clauses accordingly.
In clause 7.7(e) (ii), delete ', Deputy Leader'.
Rename clauses 8.1 - 8.9 as 'the Policy-making Process'.
Separate clauses 8.10 - 8.16 into a separate article, called 'Conference'.
In clause 8.11, after 'sessions', delete 'of the Conference at which any member of the Party may speak, but such provisions shall not prejudice the right of the chair of a session to select speakers'.
In clause 10.2 (i) (a), delete 'or Deputy Leader'.
Insert new clause 13.3 '(b) the Vice President responsible for working with BaME communities'.
Insert new clause 13.3 '(f) the Chair of the Racial Diversity Campaign'.
Switch the order of clauses 16.4 and 16.5.
In clause 18.4 (g), delete 'Equalities' and insert 'Equality'.
In clause 18.8 (g), delete 'Equalities' and insert 'Equality'.
In clause 20.1 (b), after 'objectives;' insert 'and'.
Re-order articles to be in the following order:
- Conference
- The Policy-Making Process
- Committees of the Federal Party
- The Federal Board
- The Federal Policy Committee
- The Federal Conference Committee
Re-number all articles and sub-clauses, and all references to articles and sub-clauses, accordingly.
The current Federal Party constitution is available here.
The existing text of the relevant parts of the articles amended by Parts 1 to 4 above are as follows:
ARTICLE 7: Committees of the Federal Party
...
7.3 Any member of a Committee who does not attend a meeting for 6 months without good reason shall be deemed to have resigned from that Committee.
ARTICLE 8: The Policy-Making Process and Conference
...
8.12 The Conference shall normally meet twice a year, for a week in the early autumn and a weekend in the early spring; additional meetings may be summoned upon the requisition of the Federal Board or the Federal Policy Committee or the Conference itself or 200 members, in not fewer than 20 local parties. A meeting may be cancelled by the Federal Board in exceptional circumstances.
ARTICLE 14: The Federal International Relations Committee
...
14.2 The Committee Shall consist of:
...
(ii) non-voting members:
...
one representative of the Brussels and Europe local party; and
Applicability: Federal.
F23 and F24 will be debated together but voted on separately. See notes after F24.