Isle of Wight Council to move to committee system in 2025

The Isle of Wight Council has decided to change the way it makes decisions by moving to a committee style of governance system.

At an extraordinary meeting of the Full Council last night, it was agreed the council’s current leader and cabinet led structure, where most decisions are taken by Cabinet or an appointed councillor, will be replaced with a committee system with effect from the annual council meeting in May 2025.

The council will use the coming year to fully prepare for the changes.

By law, the changes can only be fully adopted at an annual council meeting and now that councillors have passed a formal resolution opting for a new governance system, the decision cannot be revisited for five years without a referendum.

A committee system is where the council is divided into several committees that make the decisions on different parts of the council’s business.

Each of these committees is normally made up of a politically balanced number of councillors from each of the political groups and those not aligned to any of those groups.

Some decisions can only be taken by all councillors at a full council meeting such as setting the budget and council tax and other committees that deal with any regulatory matters such as planning and licensing.

The committee system will include a policy, finance and resources committee, and four other service committees covering:

• children’s services, education and skills;
• adult social care, public health, and housing;
• economy, regeneration, transport, and infrastructure;
• environment and community protection.

This means that more councillors are actively involved in decision-making and is seen to be more inclusive. Decisions are made collectively by committee members with shared accountability for the decisions made.

Legal scrutiny functions will be taken on by the relevant committees and others that currently operate, such as planning and licensing, remain unchanged.

The council will keep to the current leader and cabinet led structure until the official implementation of the committee system in May 2025, following the Isle of Wight Council elections.

More information on what the new style of committee system will mean for the Isle of Wight Council is available online.