At every Full Council meeting (except at the Annual Meeting and at Extraordinary Meetings) there is an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions about Council business and submit a petition under the agenda item Public Questions and Petitions.
Duration
A period of up to one hour is allocated for all questions, statements and petitions.
The Lord Mayor (as Chair of the meeting) has discretion as to how questions, petitions and statements are presented at the meeting. They also have permission as to whether you are invited to present your question/petition/statement at the meeting, or if they are read out at the meeting.
A response to the question or petition will be given by the Leader of the Council or the appropriate Committee Chair.
If you are not able to attend the meeting, your question/petition may be referred to the appropriate Member. An answer/response will be provided to you.
Public participations order
The order for receiving public participations within the allocated time is:
- Petitions
- Questions relating to the agenda of the specific Full Council meeting
- Supplementary questions to written questions relating to the remit of the Full Council
- Statements
There may be situations where some questions and/or statements are not able to be presented in the meeting. This may be because time does not allow or where a Member undertakes to provide a written response. Where this occurs, a written response will be sent to participants within 10 clear working days of the meeting. They will be published on our website.
Question and statements arrangements
The following arrangements apply to all types of question and statements:
- your written question, supplementary question, verbal question or statement must not exceed 200 words
- a question may have multiple linked parts, which will be considered as one question (as long as it is within the 200-word limit)
- any pre-amble or introductory remarks must be included in the 200-word limit
Participations
You can have a maximum of two participations in any meeting, such as a written question and a statement, or a verbal question and a statement
All questions and statements must be sent by email to publicquestions@sheffield.gov.uk by the submission deadlines.
If you do not meet these deadlines, your question or statement will be deferred to the next meeting of the Full Council, unless you withdraw your submission.
Details of how we will use and keep your information can be found on our privacy notice.
You have the option to:
- attend the meeting in person
- join remotely through hybrid link
- request that a nominated person or Council officer read your submission on your behalf or request a written response
Written questions will only receive a written response and will not be read out in the meeting.
The submission deadlines for meetings of the Full Council can be found on our Dates of Meetings and Deadlines webpage.
Public participation methods
The arrangements for the different methods of public participation at Full Council meetings are available on this page.
Participations must be submitted within a number of clear working days before the meeting. A clear working day does not count bank holidays.
Exclusions
Petitions, questions or statements will not be permitted if they relate to:
- judicial or quasi-judicial matters
- individual planning/licence/grant applications or appeals
- identifiable officers or Members of the Council
- confidential matters of the type referred to in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972
- matters which are repetitious, including questions which are substantially the same as questions asked at other meetings of the Council or Committees within the previous six months
- matters of an irrelevant, defamatory, frivolous or offensive nature or a general misuse of the opportunity