How the City of London works/
Committees/ Getting involved/
Court of Common Council/ Council
Personnel/ Court of Aldermen/
Numbers per City ward/
Qualification/ Election and
tenure/ Dates and times/
Glossary
How the City of
London works
The City of London’s main decision-making body is the Court of
Common Council. This is made up of elected Members from the City's
wards, who cover a wide range of professions and City
interests, and are elected on a non-party political basis.
The City has 25 wards. Each elects
one Alderman and a number of Members to the Court of Common
Council. Aldermen represent their wards in the Court of
Aldermen and also form part of the wider Court of Common
Council.
The Court of Common Council debates and makes decisions on the
most crucial issues that have arisen from the work of the City of
London’s many different committees. It is membership of the Court
that City elections determine.
Committees
The City of London - like any other local government services
provider in the UK - works through a
committee
system, covering a diverse range of activities. Committee
meetings discuss the City of London’s day-to-day activities and
projects in collaboration with City of London officers who carry
out the work and who report to the Town Clerk. The committees are
where the decision-making process evolves, with crucial issues that
arise from them taken on to be debated in the Court of Common
Council.
The committee
process
Committees work through a structured format of an agenda and
reports, which are available before the meeting takes place. The
agenda serves as a guide to the Chairman as to the issues and work
that needs to be discussed at the meeting. Items on the agenda will
include the minutes of the previous meeting through to reports
submitted by City of London officers on behalf of their
departments. Agendas and reports are also available to the public
before the meeting takes place and are available from the
Town
Clerk's department.
Committee
personnel
All committees have a Chairman who is annually elected by the
members of the committee. In most, but not all, cases there is also
a Deputy Chairman. Committee Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen are
Members of the Court of the Common Council, as are the rest of the
personnel who make up the committees. Senior officers of the City
of London's staff also attend relevant committee meetings. Click
here for a
list of
the City of London's committees, the areas they cover and the
members who sit on them.
Getting involved
Members of the public wanting to follow the work that goes on at
committee level at the City of London can do so in a number of
ways. Firstly, the public are invited to attend committee meetings
in their area of interest if they wish.
A list of dates, times and venues can be searched
online to find out when a particular committee will be meeting
next. However, on occasion, the public may be excluded from sitting
in on parts of the meeting on the legal grounds that certain items
on the agenda may disclose exempt information.
Those not able to attend a certain meeting or wanting to know
what may be covered in an upcoming meeting can gain access to
committee agendas, minutes, reports and
resolutions by using an online search engine. Again, only
public documents can be made available on legal grounds. This
facility also allows members of the public to search under
keywords to find exact information relating to specific issues
or topics.
Court of Common Council
The Court of the Common Council is the main decision-making body
through which the City of London operates and is headed by the Lord
Mayor. The Council, which is made up of Aldermen and Common
Councilmen, sits every four weeks in Guildhall and works through
issues arising from the City of London's various committees. Its
main business focuses on the reports of committees as well as
Members' questions and motions.
Council personnel
The personnel that make up the Court of the Common Council are
appointed by the wards they stand for and not by the Council
itself. Members could be colloquially termed ‘councillors’ like
most local authorities, but their rather unfamiliar names serve
both a historical purpose and as a distinction between Council
Members and their nationwide counterparts. Although Aldermen and
Common Councilmen serve their respective wards like conventional
councillors, unlike other local authority councillors in the UK,
national political affiliations are not represented by any members
of the Court of the Common Council, with all members remaining
independent.
Details
of current members of the Court of the Common Council and the
committees on which they sit.
Court of Aldermen
As well as sitting on the Court of Common Council, the 25
Aldermen still sit on the Court of Aldermen. This court was
originally responsible for the entire administration of the City,
but was diminished with the development of the Court of Common
Council in the fourteenth century. Meeting nine times a year in the
Aldermens Court Room at Guildhall, the Court of Aldermen is also
summoned and presided over by the Lord Mayor.
The work undertaken at the meetings of the Court is varied and
includes approving certain applications from individuals for the
Freedom of the City, through to approving the formation of new
livery companies. The Court also has responsibilities for
overseeing the management of Mansion House - through the Private
Secretary to the Lord Mayor - and can also make nominations to the
Court of Common Council for the appointment of Aldermen on City of
London committees.
Numbers per City
ward
Each of the 25 City wards has one Alderman. In contrast, the
number of Common Councilmen per ward is determined by the size of
the electorate.
Qualification
The qualifying criteria for the two types of Member is also
different. Aldermen do not need to reside within a ward for which
they seek election and require no qualification as owners or
occupiers of premises in the
Square Mile. Common Councilmen, on the other hand, need to be
one of the following to be able to seek election:
- Registered on the ward list for any ward election
- The owner of freehold or leasehold land in the City
- During the whole of the 12 months preceding the date of
nomination and until the date of election, a resident of the
City
All Aldermen are a Justice of the Peace (JP). If not already a
JP when an aldermanic post is available for election, candidates
have 20 days to register their interest as a candidate. If they do
so, a further period of 100 days is undertaken whereby the Lord
Chancellor vets whether the candidate is suitable to become a JP
and, as a result, stand in the forthcoming election.
Both Aldermen and Common Councilmen also need to be
Freemen of the City at the dates of nomination and election to
qualify.
Election and
tenure
Both Aldermen and Common Councilmen are elected by the wards and
are not appointed by the Court itself. However, the tenure the two
types of Member serve is different. Originally an Alderman was
appointed to hold office for life subject to surrender or
disqualification. Although this is still the case, Aldermen do now
offer themselves for re-election every six years, although they are
also allowed to offer themselves at any time within that period if
they wish. This period then begins again after re-election. The
aldermanic office is usually relinquished at the age of 70 when
JP's are obliged to retire from regular bench duties. At this point
Aldermen will offer their resignation to the Court, which is then
put forward for approval. Common Councilmen, on the other hand,
face ward elections every four years, with the next scheduled for
March 2009 .
Dates and times
Both the Court of Common Council and the Court of Alderman are
open to the general public. Dates and times of these meetings are
listed below.
2008
|
Time |
1.00pm |
12.30pm |
|
Location |
Great Hall |
Aldermen's Court |
|
Dates |
10 January |
15 January |
| |
7 February |
19 February |
| |
6 March |
- |
| |
10 April |
1April |
| |
8 May |
14 May |
| |
12 June |
10 June |
| |
17 July |
15July |
| |
11 September |
24 September |
| |
16 October |
- |
| |
6 November |
4 November |
| |
4 December |
9 December |