Public questions and statements at Council meetings

We enable and encourage those that live and work in Sheffield to have a say in their city by allowing public questions, statements and petitions to be presented at formal, decision making meetings.

Council Meeting

 

All Councillors attend this meeting and it takes the major decisions on the Council's budget, key policies and procedures.

 

Policy Committees

 

Most of the important decisions that affect the whole of Sheffield are made by the Council’s Policy Committees. They are responsible for implementing the policies of the Council. 

 

Local Area Committees

 

Every community in Sheffield is covered by one of the Council's seven local area committees. They are the best way for people to get involved in local issues. Details of the Local Area Committees can be found here.

 

Planning and Highways Committee

Details on how to make representations at Planning and Highways Committee can be found here.

 

Questions and statements for the Full Council meeting or Committee

A new approach to how the public can submit questions for Council meetings has been introduced to make decision making more accessible.

Councillors have approved proposals to alter how the public interact with the Council’s committees in a bid to encourage more citizen involvement in Sheffield’s democracy.

Details of the scheme are available on our Document Scheme for Public Involvement in Council Meetings page.

Improvements

To improve public access to committees and decision making, committees will allow members of the public to join remotely to ask questions or read statements. This is in addition to being able to attend committee meetings in person.

Livestreaming of Council and Committee meetings will continue as usual through our Webcast Portal.

Members of the public will also have the option to have their questions or statements read out by someone else on their behalf. Either a nominated person or a Council officer.

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

There will now be several ways to participate in a Council or Committee meeting. This is to provide members of the public more opportunities to engage. These include:

Questions that are in the remit of the Committee

These must be submitted by 9am six clear working days before the scheduled meeting.

Written questions will be responded to and published one clear day before the relevant meeting. There is no requirement for questioners to attend the meeting. However they can if they wish to do so.

At Full Council meetings, questions must be about matters relating to Sheffield or Council services. 

At Committee meetings, questions must relate to the remit of the relevant Committee. Our Council and Policy Committee Responsibilities detail this.

Supplementary questions

These arise directly from the original written question and/or the response.

These must be submitted in writing by 9am on the working day before the relevant meeting.
Supplementary questions can be asked verbally in person or on screen, by a nominated person or read out by a Council officer.

The Leader of the Council or Committee Chairs at Council Meetings or Committee Chair at Committee meetings can reply to supplementary questions.

Written responses to questions will be published within 10 working days of the meeting.

Agenda item questions

These can be submitted relating to items on the published agenda for a specific Full Council or Committee meeting.

These must be submitted by 9am and 2 clear working days before the scheduled meeting.

Questions can be asked verbally in person or on screen by a nominated person or read out by a Council officer.

The Leader of the Council or Committee Chairs at Council Meetings or Committee Chair at Committee meetings can reply to questions.

Written responses to questions will be published within 10 working days of the meeting.
 

Statements

These can be submitted on matters within the remit of Full Council or the Committee or in specific reference to agenda items.

Statements relevant to the remit of Full Council or a specific Committee must be submitted by 9am, six clear working days before the scheduled meeting.

Statements relevant to items on the published agenda for the specific Full Council or Committee meeting must be received in writing by 9am and 2 clear working days before the scheduled meeting.

All statements will be published online the working day before the relevant meeting and circulated to all Members of the meeting.

Statements may be read in person or on screen by a nominated person or by a Council officer (if time allows).

There is no commitment to respond to statements, but the Lord Mayor or relevant Committee Chair reserves the right to reply at Council meetings. 

At Committee meetings, the Committee Chair reserves the right to reply.

Which meeting to submit your question or statement to

Full Council can take questions on any matter that is within the Council’s responsibility or that affects the city or its citizens.

If you are asking a question at one of the council’s committees, your question must be within the remit of that committee. Details of Committee remits are available on our Document Council and Policy Committee Responsibilities 2024 2025.

Meeting dates

Date of Council Meetings can be found on the Council Meetings calendar

Deadlines for questions and statements

There is a deadline for submitting questions and statements.

Select the meeting you are interested in on our Dates of Meetings and Deadlines page.

Please email all questions and statements to publicquestions@sheffield.gov.uk

Previous questions and statements

You can see details of previous questions/statements and the responses given on our Document Log of all Public Questions and Public Statements (2024 2025) page.

Contact Democratic Services

Town Hall
Pinstone Street
Sheffield
S1 2HH

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