Wandsworth Council is set to reintroduce oral questions to Cabinet members during full council meetings as part of a series of significant changes to its standing orders and constitutional arrangements. The decision was made at a General Purposes Committee meeting on Monday, 20 July 2026, which discussed a comprehensive constitutional review aimed at making council procedures more open, transparent, and effective.

The constitutional review was prompted by the council operating without overall political control following the May 2026 local elections and a Confidence and Supply Agreement between the largest political group and the Independent Member. Key findings of the review indicated that current procedures were no longer fit for purpose, being obtuse, they are not clear, and in many instances, they have evolved over time. They are no longer intelligently designed, but they are a product of years and years of ad hoc amendments here and there, and practices that have grown up that aren't necessarily helpful to our proceedings or make those proceedings accessible to most councillors. Furthermore, changes enacted over the previous four years had been taken out of the competence of the General Purposes Committee, emanating directly from the leaders' group without debate, and imposed on all members at the expense of minority councillors' rights and the effectiveness of governance and democratic procedures.

Under the revised standing orders, councillors will now have the opportunity to ask oral questions directly to Cabinet members, a process that had previously been removed. The original intention behind removing oral questions from full council meetings was to accommodate an orderly timetable in light of the removal of the guillotine from full council meetings, to prevent the agenda from becoming too burdensome and to ensure members were not detained in the chamber past the old guillotine time. It was also suggested that having cabinet members available for question-and-answer sessions in scrutiny meetings provided a more dynamic and thorough forum for scrutiny.

Councillor Aled Richards-Jones, Leader of the Council, stated that the constitutional review aimed to breathe genuine life and democracy back into our procedures. He added that the revised standing orders are intended to enhance democratic participation, strengthen scrutiny, and improve transparency in decision-making.

The reintroduction of oral questions to Cabinet members will add an estimated 20 minutes to the agenda of full council meetings. To ensure these additional minutes are used effectively and don't lead to unproductive debates, the new scheme for oral questions to Cabinet members is based on the existing arrangements for questions to the Leader, with time limits for both questions and answers. The scheme puts time limits on the questions and answers and allows alternation. The intention is to put a very clear discipline on the cabinet member to give a punchy answer, which gives the key point of the matter, rather than sometimes it getting rather lost in verbiage. The council plans to see how the arrangement goes because like all these arrangements, the draft in front of us is a good faith basis for improving our procedures. But we will have practical experience of these procedures over the next meeting or two or three. And it's on the basis of that experience that then we can come back to this committee and make tweaks or further amendments as is necessary.

Beyond the reintroduction of oral questions, several other significant changes to standing orders and constitutional arrangements are being implemented. Amendments were made concerning debates, with a proposal to delete restrictive paragraphs that prevented councillors from speaking on certain types of items for two subsequent meetings being lost. However, an amendment was agreed to insert and opposition speaker into paragraph 29D, allowing the opposition speaker to speak on items for decision.

The 150-word limit for group motions was removed, as was a related provision limiting amended motions to 200 words. A proposal to delete paragraph 34C, which related to the ringing of a bell after prayers, was agreed, maintaining the current practice.

An amendment was agreed to restore the position of handing in petitions from the end of the meeting to the start of the meeting. A proposal to amend Standing Order 44 to change the reimbursement of rail travel from first-class fare to standard class was noted as being dealt with as part of a wider review. An amendment was agreed to add a new point 6 to page 57, paragraph 10, concerning the future work programme of the committee.

An amendment to increase the membership of Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs) to seven members was passed. A temporary provision was introduced, allowing the Chief Executive, acting as a proper officer, to make appointments to committees on nomination from group leaders, with an end date of 21 October 2026.

Further details on these changes can be found in the Agenda for the General Purposes Committee on 20 July 2026.