Full Council

Democratic Support Team Contact Line - 01752 305155

What is Full Council?

Full Council is a meeting of all Plymouth’s 57 Councillors.

It is chaired by The Lord Mayor who also maintains a ceremonial role. It is run according to formal rules of debate known as standing orders as laid out in the Council’s Constitution.

Full Council is a forum for debate on policy issues and makes decisions on -

agreeing strategies and plans
setting budgets
taking decisions on executive functions outside approved policy or budget framework
adopting and / or changing the constitution.

Some business can only be determined by full Council such as:

setting the council tax
approving the Budget
appointment of civic offices eg Mayor
appointing the Leader
approval of certain plans/strategies

Full Council can receive questions and petitions from members of the public about things that affect the local area. For more information on this please see the Get Involved section of the website.

How often do Full Council meetings take place?

Full Council meets five times a year with the additional Annual Meeting, a special meeting for Budget and council tax setting and any special meetings as required.

Reports to Council

Reports to Council must use the standard committee report template and have relevant signs off codes from the Finance and Legal Department. The Cabinet member must have approved any report to Council in their portfolio area.

Timing of Reports

In order to comply with statutory legal requirements the agenda must be published with reports to be considered at least 5 clear working days ahead of the meeting, democratic support will give a deadline in order to meeting the statutory requirement which allows time for quality assurance and checking that the report is in line with constitutional requirements.