Public and councillor questions and responses

Submitting your question

• A maximum of two questions per meeting can be submitted to the Director of Corporate Governance, Property and Procurement.
• Questioners must either be Derby Council Tax or Non-Domestic Rate Payers.
• In accordance with the Council's Constitution, your question may be rejected if:
  • it is not about a matter for which the local authority has responsibility for or affects the city
  • it is defamatory, frivolous or offensive
  • it is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of Council in the past six months
  • it requires the disclosure of exempt or confidential information.

The deadline for submitting questions is at midday, five clear working days prior to the Council meeting – if the meeting is on a Wednesday evening, questions should be submitted by noon on Tuesday of the previous week.

Receiving your response and attending the Council meeting

• Copies of questions and answers will be made available to the public by 5pm on the day of the meeting.
• The question and answer booklet will be published on the Democracy Portal for public inspection. Navigate to the Meetings Calendar and select the meeting to which your question relates to find the document.
• Please report to the Council House reception fifteen minutes prior to the advertised start time of the Council meeting.
• A member of staff will direct you to the Council Chamber on the first floor. Please note, you will be asked to place bags and large items in a secure locker.

Asking your question at the Council meeting

• A limited number of hard copies of the Council Questions booklet will be available in the Council Chamber. Please view the responses online where possible.
• At the meeting, a Council officer will read out a summary of your initial question. The Mayor will then invite you to ask a verbal supplementary question.
• The supplementary question must be related to your initial question and the response you have received in the published booklet.
• Please be concise when asking your question – if you choose to make a statement the Mayor may cut you short and move to the next question.
• Questions are normally put in the order they are received. When similar questions are received, questions may be grouped together and a single response provided.
• With the exception of the above, no person will have an opportunity to ask a second question before all questioners have had an opportunity to ask a first question.
• Public questions are limited to 30 minutes in duration. Any questions not dealt with during this time period will be carried forward to the next available Council meeting.

For more information, email committee@derby.gov.uk.