Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Alderman Nicholas Lyons, Alderman Gregory Jones, KC, Alderman Robert Hughes-Penney and Alderman Kawsar Zaman.

There were no declarations.

To approve the minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 5 December 2023.

The Committee considered the minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 5 December 2023.

RESOLVED: - That the minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 5 December 2023 be approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

Chairman’s Congratulatory Remarks

The Chairman, on behalf of the Court of Aldermen, offered congratulations to Alderman Alison Gowman who had been made a Doctor of Civil Law at Durham University and who had also been appointed as one of the City Corporation’s Policy Leads of Sustainability.

He went on to congratulate Alderman Vincent Keaveny who had been offered an Honorary Fellowship by UCL in recognition of his work to reestablish the link between the Mayoralty and the University which the current Lord Mayor was continuing.

Finally, congratulations were offered to Alderman Alastair King who had become an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities &? Investment (CISI).

Report of the Comptroller & City Solicitor and Deputy Chief Executive.

The Committee considered a report of the Comptroller & City Solicitor and Deputy Chief Executive concerning the operation of the 6-year convention for Aldermen.

The Comptroller introduced the item, highlighting that discussion had been held at the last meeting of this Committee highlighting that the ’6-year convention’, adopted in 1998 had not been incorporated into the Undertakings document signed by all taking up the office of Aldermen adopted in 2003. Neither did the convention as drafted take into account those obligations potentially operating in conflict with it. The report presented today therefore sought the Committee’s views as to re-casting the 6-year convention as additional paragraphs 1.1 – 1.3 granting both this Committee and the Nominations Committee of the Court of Aldermen the power to relax the convention upon written application from an individual Alderman in appropriate circumstances.

He went on to state that other matters impacting upon the conventions such as Purdah were set out within Aldermanic Standing Orders and had not been set out in the redraft proposed here, although this Committee might have further views on this matter and on the conventions more generally.

An Alderman queried whether references to the Magistracy (currently at paragraphs 1.4 and 1.6 of the conventions) should make it clear that this was where applicable only given that some new Aldermen went down the magistracy route but others did not.

An Alderwoman spoke on the fact that the current conventions did not and had never mentioned the Purdah period following a Mayoralty and queried why this had not been included in the consolidation now proposed. Officers clarified that reference to Purdah currently featured in the Court of Aldermen’s Standing Orders. The Alderwoman responded to state that, for reasons of transparency and clarity, she felt that the relevant Standing Order (39) ought to also be

Report of the Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor.

The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor presenting for approval the high-level Business Plan for the Mansion House & Office of Lord Mayor and Sheriffs (Town Clerks) Department for 2024/25.

The Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor introduced the report by commenting that this was designed to give a longer-term strategy to the Mansion House and Shrieval corridor following a period of stabilisation and consolidation. She went on to draw attention to the fact that the Mansion House were seeking to work with parallel institutions to better develop both its commercial contacts and performance measures. Going forward, the aspiration was to produce a five-year business plan to align with the wider Corporate Plan 2024-2029.

In response to a question, the Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor, clarified that ELB referred to Executive Leadership Board, an Officer based Group.

An Alderman recognised that this Committee acted as the service committee for the Shrieval apartments and the Mansion House but that there was a split in responsibility for the Old Bailey. He commented that he was keen to see this Committee have service responsibility for and oversight of those areas of the Old Bailey associated with the Shrievalty. The Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor offered to seek further clarity on this point and report back to the Alderman on the matter.

Another Alderman commented on a desire to dig dipper in terms of the Climate Action Strategy and to ensure that Officers felt supported in terms of its delivery and accessing funding available for this for the Mansion House as a flagship building. She also referenced external partners and queried whether St Paul’s could be explored as such.

An Alderman stated that it was important to see and

Report of the Executive Director, Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor.

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director, Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor providing a summary of the history, background and current practice associated with the ceremonial custom of ‘knocking in’ at the Old Bailey.

The Chairman reported that this practice was currently optional for those Aldermen attending lunch. Where Sheriffs were hosting lunches, they did ‘Knock In’ wherever possible on that day.

An Alderman queried gowns for this purpose, where they were kept and laundered, when each gown should be worn and their relevance/what they represented. The Chairman commented that he had recently been informed that gowns were no longer worn for this purpose. The Town Clerk undertook to seek further clarification on this point and report back.

An Alderman stated that it was one of the civic duties of an Alderman to attend the Old Bailey on a regular basis and that this was not therefore optional.

The Chairman therefore also took this opportunity to remind all to respond to requests for Old Bailey lunch rota allocations.

RESOLVED: – That Members note the report.

There were no questions.

There were no additional, urgent items of business for consideration.

MOTION - That, in accordance with the Court of Aldermen’s Disclosure Arrangement (Standing Order 25), the public shall be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen have determined, having had due regard to the Disclosure Arrangement, that disclosure should not be permitted.

RESOLVED - That, in accordance with the Court of Aldermen’s Disclosure Arrangement (Standing Order 25), the public shall be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen have determined, having had due regard to the Disclosure Arrangement, that disclosure should not be permitted.

To approve the non-public minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on xxx.

The Committee considered and approved the non-public minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 5 December 2023.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered and approved a report of the Town Clerk & Chief Executive relative to three applications for a leave of absence.

Joint report of the Town Clerk, the Comptroller & City Solicitor and the Remembrancer.

With the agreement of the Chairman, this item was withdrawn from the agenda post publication.

Joint report of the Town Clerk, the Chamberlain and the Remembrancer.

The Committee received a joint report of the Town Clerk, the Chamberlain and the Remembrancer compares the revenue outturn for the services overseen by your Committee in 2022/23 with the final approved budget for the year.

Joint report of the Chamberlain, the Deputy Town Clerk and the Remembrancer.

The Committee considered and approved a joint report of the Chamberlain, the Deputy Town Clerk and the Remembrancer presenting the annual submission of the revenue budgets overseen by this committee.

To receive the minutes of the last meeting of the Magistracy and Livery Sub-Committee held on 11 December 2023.

The Committee received the minutes of the last meeting of the Magistracy and Livery Sub-Committee held on 11 December 2023.

Members of Aldermanic Strategy Group Three updated the Committee on their work regarding Communications and Stakeholder Engagement.

There were no updates on wider Committee issues.

There were no questions raised in non-public session.

Additional items of business including opportunities to access Mayoral activities, the Court of Common Council Aldermanic Rota and a Charitable Donation to the United Guilds Service were discussed in non-public session.