No 6272
Thursday 28 June 2012
Vol cxlii No 37
pp. 746–748
The Council begs leave to report to the University as follows:
1. As part of the review process approved by the Regent House in 2010 on the recommendation of the Council, consultation papers relating to proposed New Statutes A–F were published on 25 July 2011 (Reporter, 2010–11, p. 1075). A consultation paper had previously been published in relation to a proposed New Statute G on 12 January 2011 (Reporter, 2010–11, p. 393). Comments made on those papers have been considered by the Technical Advisory Group chaired by Professor David Yates, which has given its advice to the Council, and has prepared this Report which now presents all the New Statutes for approval in principle.
2. This Report has three sections:
Preamble
Appendix I – Proposed New Statutes and Special Ordinances, with Explanatory Notes
Appendix II – Current Statutes, Cross-Referred to the New Statutes
3. The purpose of this Report is to set out the proposed New Statutes and Special Ordinances for approval in principle by the Regent House. It is intended that there will be a Discussion and a Grace for approval in principle in the Michaelmas Term. The proposed Special Ordinances contain material that has been removed from the existing statutes. They will not require approval by the Privy Council, only by the Regent House, though they cannot be changed or repealed without a Report, Discussion, a ballot if called, and a Grace. The changes proposed here are almost entirely of a technical nature; in the rare cases where it has been considered necessary to make a substantive change to avoid illegality or to clarify ambiguity this has been indicated by a footnote in the text of the New Statutes. The members of the Regent House are asked at this stage to consider the proposed New Statutes on the same basis and refrain from raising in Discussion existing substantive issues which may be of concern in the current Statutes. In due course the Council intends to bring a second Report to the Regent House for Discussion and Grace that includes any necessary corrective changes that may be required. At that point the recommendation to the Regent House will be that the consolidated revised Statutes be formally approved and submitted to Her Majesty in Council for approval.
4. As already agreed, the proposed New Statutes are accompanied by Explanatory Notes. These do not form part of the New Statutes, but are published with it to assist users of the New Statutes. They are editorial, and do not require the approval of the Regent House, nor of the Privy Council.
5. At present University legislation consists of the Statutes (which are made by the University under the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act 1923, but are subject to Privy Council approval), and Ordinances (which are made under the authority of the Statutes by the Regent House). In addition, the Senate has power to make Ordinances to govern the business of the Senate, and the General Board has the power to make regulations (also called ‘Ordinances’).
6. The procedure currently required to change a Statute of the University is that of a Report by the Council to the Regent House, a Discussion, a Notice, and then a Grace. If a ballot is called on the Grace, there is a vote of the Regent House followed by, if the Regent House approves the Grace, submission to the Privy Council for approval. This last step is normally a formality but not always. The Privy Council has, on occasion, delayed approval, asked for further and better particulars and, on at least one occasion in the last five years, rejected a proposed change altogether (though not in the case of this University).
7. The Technical Advisory Group proposed no change to the process required for the repeal or modification of a Statute. However, if the Statutes are to be put into a form which does not require a change to a Statute whenever circumstances within the University or national law call for new provisions or changes to existing ones, then current procedures need to be modified.
8. It is the Council’s view that the Statutes can be shortened, simplified, and much improved by including within them only the fundamental constitutional and governance provisions of the University, and moving out of them to other measures those provisions that contain the detail supporting the fundamental constitutional and governance provisions, or which simply implement rules of national law that are subject to change from time to time.
9. The Council proposes to move these less fundamental provisions to Special Ordinances. Changes to Special Ordinances will not require the approval of the Privy Council, but the Council proposes that all the other internal procedures to change a Statute will apply to Special Ordinances.
10. Thus changes to Special Ordinances would always require a Report, a Discussion, a Notice, a ballot should one be called and a Grace. Changes to Ordinances might also require a Report, a Discussion, a Notice, a ballot if called, and a Grace depending upon their significance but, as presently, discretion could be exercised by the Council or the General Board, as appropriate, to promote minor changes by a Notice and a Grace. This seems to the Council to strike the right balance between enabling necessary and appropriate changes to less fundamental matters to be readily made, while ensuring that any proposed changes do not escape proper scrutiny by the University, and are fully justified to the Regent House.
11. It is accordingly proposed that the following structure be adopted:
(i)Statutes, made by the University under the provisions of the Oxford and Cambridge Act 1923. These are subject to approval by the Privy Council after due internal process and are absolutely binding unless inconsistent with national, European or International Law.
(ii)Special Ordinances, made under Statute by the Regent House on the basis of a Report to the University, a Discussion, a Notice, a Grace and a ballot if called. These must be consistent with the provisions of the Statutes which, in cases of conflict, override them.
(iii)Ordinances, made by the Regent House by Grace as a present. Again, these must be consistent with the Statutes which, in cases of conflict, override them.
(iv)Regulations, for instance, those instruments currently designated ‘ordinances’ made by the General Board about academic areas defined by Statute.
12. Reducing the Statutes to an enabling framework and a set of constitutional and governance principles is fully in line with the current Privy Council advice. Privy Council clerks have, in recent times, strongly urged universities to frame their constitutional structures in such a way that as little recourse as possible is required to be made to the Privy Council for consent to changes in universities’ legislative documents.
13. Separate provision is contained in the proposed New Statute A, III, 6 for the existing safeguards for Colleges in relation to the amendment of statute to be extended to Special Ordinances, by replicating the provisions of Section 7(1) of the 1923 Act as follows:
A Special Ordinance (not being a Special Ordinance prescribing the scale or basis of assessment of the contributions to be made by the colleges to University purposes), which affects a college, shall not be subject to alteration except with the consent of that college.
14. In those few cases where a College or any member of the Regent House may feel that the University has acted ultra vires or in any other way illegally in promulgating a change that formerly might have resulted in a petition to the Universities Committee of the Privy Council, there will remain for such grievance the route of representation under Statute A, IX to the Vice-Chancellor and therefrom to the Commissary (a person who customarily holds, or has held, high judicial office and is as equipped as the Universities Committee of the Privy Council to make an independent adjudication).
15. The proposed New Statutes set out in this Report envisage certain matters currently contained in Statute in future being regulated by Special Ordinance. Draft Special Ordinances derived from the text of the current Statutes are therefore included with the proposed New Statutes, so that the members of the Regent House can be reassured that the totality of the current Statutes would remain within Statute or Special Ordinance, save for one or two matters which it is suggested are suitable for repeal or inclusion in Ordinance rather than Special Ordinance. These are presented for approval in principle by the Regent House at the same time as the proposed New Statutes.
16. The provisions relating to University Officers currently contained in Statute D are to be found in the proposed New Statute C and its Special Ordinances. Statute U has been retained within Statute as a Schedule to New Statute C, which may be varied by means of a Report and Grace if thought appropriate. Certain matters in Statute U relating to Discipline have been included elsewhere, as shown in the Appendices to this Report.
17. The Council therefore recommends:
That approval in principle be given to the proposed New Statutes and Special Ordinances contained in Appendix I to this Report.
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18 June 2012 |
L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor |
I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay |
Mavis McDonald |
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David Abulafia |
Nicholas Gay |
Susan Oosthuizen |
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N. Bampos |
David Good |
Rachael Padman |
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Richard Barnes |
Andy Hopper |
T. Parry-Jones |
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D. J. A. Casserley |
Christopher Hum |
John Shakeshaft |
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Stephen J. Cowley |
F. P. Kelly |
Gerard Tully |
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Athene Donald |
Robert Lethbridge |
A. D. Yates |
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R. J. Dowling |