A county councillor or any person who lives or works in the county, or is affected by the work of the county council, may submit a written question to the Leader of the Council or a Cabinet Member on any matter which relates to any item on the Cabinet agenda for that meeting.
Any county councillor who submits a written question, will also have the opportunity to ask their question at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting during a 30-minute question and answer session. Once the Councillor has asked their question, and received a reply, they can also ask a Supplementary Question. Should the 30 minutes be reached before a Councillor has been able to ask their question, then a written response will be provided.
Note that questions about "Part II" items (those that are private and confidential) must be in writing only and cannot be asked at the meeting. These will be subject to a written response.
Each County Councillor or member of the public may only submit one question per meeting.
Once the agenda for the Cabinet meeting has been published, a written copy of the question can be submitted to the Democratic Services team by 12 noon, two clear working days before the date of the meeting, setting out the question and the agenda item to which it relates. That means if Cabinet meets on a Thursday, as is usually the case, questions must be submitted by 12 noon on the Monday.
An urgent written question may be asked by a county councillor about any item on the Cabinet agenda for that meeting, which the Leader of the Council, as Chair, considers could not have been reasonably submitted by the deadline. provided that they give notice of the question to Democratic Services by 12 noon the day before the meeting.
The Cabinet Agenda will be published 5 clear working days before the meeting and can be viewed on each Cabinet Agenda page.
To submit a question, please fill in the Questions for Cabinet online form. If you need any assistance filling in the form, please email democratic.services@lancashire.gov.uk.
We will review your question and will contact you on your specified contact details should we require any further information.
Upon reviewing the question, the Monitoring Officer may rule the question out of order if it falls under one of the following:
Should your question be accepted, you will receive a written response within 5 working days of the meeting.
Questions received before the deadline and accepted will also be published on the Cabinet Agenda page in advance of the meeting. The name of the person asking the question will also be published, but any other information, such as address details, will be withheld.
All written questions will receive a written reply and will be published on the county council's website within 5 working days following the date of the Cabinet meeting. Therefore, if Cabinet meet on a Thursday, that means answers will be published by the following Thursday.
Should you require any help with submitting a question or if you want to provide further information to support your question, please email democratic.services@lancashire.gov.uk.
More information on the process for Questions for Cabinet can be found in Section C: Cabinet and Cabinet Committees Procedural Standing Orders of the Constitution.