Motion #05

Report from Green Party Regional Council

We have had the following members join GPRC: Susan Steward (Eastern), Karen Kruzycka (London), John Macefield (West Midlands), Reza Mousoli (South East).

We have had the following members leave GPRC: Richard Bradley (North East, resigned), Judy Maciejowska (South West, resigned), Anne Gayfer ( East Midlands, resigned) and Doug Rouxell (end of term of office). GPRC would like to thank all of these members for their hard work.

At the time of writing, there are currently three vacancies on GPRC.

In July GPRC elected as Interim co-chair: Joe Hudson-Small. We would like to thank Richard Bradley and Doug Rouxell who have been co-chairs over the last year.

Current GPRC working groups

• Party Structures working group (PSWG)
• Internal elections working group
• Selection of candidates for the House of Commons working group
• No Fault Suspension (NFS) Review working group
• Political Strategy Oversight (PSO) working group
• Equity, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EEDI): values and processes working group

GPRC Priorities

GPRC have been working on the following priorities agreed by conference (Spring 2023):

1. On-going work on improving the culture of the party.

• GPRC co-chairs have been working on the revised Code of Conduct. This will be brought to the Spring Conference in 2024.
• The No Fault Suspension Review group has received feedback from members on how they feel the process can be improved and made more fair to members.

2. Supporting Green Party Executive (GPEx), including oversight of the political strategy process and EEDI.

• Co-chairs have continued to meet regularly with the Chair of GPEx. In addition GPRC has a friend role for each member of GPEx, to increase dialogue between the two bodies, and provide the vital links for the oversight role that GPRC has. GPRC would like to thank GPEx members for improvements that have been made recently around the friend roles.
• GPRC EEDI working group update this working group has approached all groups of common interest and asked them to write documents for the framework of ethics.
• Political Strategy Oversight - This group has looked at the electoral objectives in the political strategy, and in particular requested that the Executive have clear plans which give an approach as to how the objectives will be achieved.

3. Helping GPEx and GPRC understand the governance structure of the Party

GPRC members have been meeting with Sarah Santos (Governance Manager) to discuss the scope of the training needed.

4. Making improvements to the whistleblowing procedure (Speaking Out).

• GPRC has voted to approve a new Speaking Out policy, this replacement has a clearer process for how we listen to member concerns.

5. Constitution

• GPRC has a Party Structure working group (PSWG) who have produced four motions for Conference.
• GPRC have submitted these motions that modernise the party’s governance and will be vital to helping us move towards incorporation. These follow on from the work of the Holistic review.

6. GPRC Handbook.

This work is behind schedule.

7. Making improvements to our internal elections processes.

The group is currently monitoring the GPEx elections to have a clearer understanding of the process.

Other Work

Selection of candidates for the House of Commons working group

Within the constitution By-Laws there is a requirement for approval from GPRC where a candidate wishes to stand for the Green Party in a Parliamentary election in a constituency where there is no Local Party; dispute concerning the selection of a prospective candidate or Parliamentary election being called at short notice. GPRC has set up a working group to assist with this work.

Appeals sub-committee

The appeals committee have heard 10 appeals over the last year. There have been 2 Appeal process reviews, under 6.5 of the GPRC standing orders, on-calls found that the appeals sub-committee followed the correct process in both of them.

No Fault Suspension requests (NFS)

Since the 1/8/22 There have been 46 requests for NFS, currently there are 7 members on NFS.

Changes to our standing orders

At the Full Council meeting on June 10th (2023b) GPRC voted to amend 6.5 of our standing orders to insert a 3 week time limit from the appeals decision for a member to request an appeal process review.

Whistleblowing - Speaking out report to conference

Since 01/08/22 there have been 7 complaints under the heading of “Speaking Out”. 3 of which were determined not to be speaking out complaints, 3 remain open and 1 is being investigated currently.

Documents that GPRC have approved in the last year

• Social Media policy
• Bringing the Party into disrepute guidance
• Addendum to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims’ Definition of Islamophobia
• Speaking Out
• Guidance on Organisational Policies - how documents are inserted into the Framework of Ethics
• Appeal process review form for members
• Recusal guidance for GPRC members

Record of Organisational Statements (RoOs)

• To take charge of the process to complete the changes in the constitution required by the ballot on the Holistic Review including continuing the work of the PWSG following the failure of the Extraordinary Conference of May 2021 to reach quoracy.
• Covered above under constitution.
• To continue a review of the Political Programme following manifesto preparation work, to update and refresh this document in view of this work.
• GPRC’s Political Strategy Oversight group will be reviewing the Political Programme.
• Healing divisions in the party motion
• The co-chairs of GPRC have met with the proposer of this motion.
• We have spoken to the leaders and other bodies within the party and are currently setting up a working group. We aim to have a small trial of the mediation to later consider rolling out to greater numbers in the party.