REGIONAL STRUCTURES

Labour’s English Regional structures were created with boundaries co-terminus with the
European constituency boundaries. Every member is allocated to a Region which has its own
lay member structure, Regional Board, Regional Director and staffing structure. The
Regional Director as a member of staff reports to the General Secretary who is appointed by
the NEC and is responsible for all staff.
There are currently nine English regions. The Scottish Labour Party and Welsh Labour Party
operate to their own rules and these have not been considered as part of this Review.
There are almost five times as many members in our largest Region than our smallest
Region. The huge explosion in membership in recent years has intensified the pressures on
many regions. The geographical size of Regions also varies hugely. It has been suggested
that the size and composition of our Regions should be reviewed and we have received
specific representations from certain parts of the country that it would make more sense to
organise in a different way. The Review has not taken submissions on this and considers it
outside our terms of reference. We have considered how we can make Regional Boards
more effective, more transparent and more accountable to the membership.
We have also received submissions that each Regional Director should be elected and be
accountable to their relevant Regional Board. Again, this is not something which we have
called for submissions on and was not included in the original terms of reference.
Labour’s Regional Boards and structures operate differently in different parts of the country.
Many active members in some Regions have little knowledge of the role or composition of
the current Regional Boards, how they are elected or how they operate as this information
is not always available to them. It has been suggested that Regional Boards are re-named
Regional Executive Committees as this would better reflect their function and we agree with
that suggestion. It has also been suggested that there should be default Standing Orders for
the Regions. Again, we agree with this. There should be standardisation of affiliation fees to
Regions.
There needs to be a far greater level of transparency about how our Regions work with CLPs
and members having direct access to the Standing Orders of the Regional Board (to be
Regional Executive Committee), details of the composition of the new Regional Executive
Committee, contact details for the elected members of the Regional Executive Committee
and minutes of meetings. The dates of Regional Executive Committees meetings should be
available to CLPs on the Labour Party website. The Standing Orders of Regional Executive
Committees should be agreed at Annual Conference and attached to the Rule Book as an
Appendix.
There needs to be a standardisation of the procedures and practise in relation to Regional
Executive Committees.

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Most submissions argue the Regional Board (to be Regional Executive Committee) should be
predominately elected by the membership and “members led”. Strong submissions have
been submitted by the representatives of councillors that they should have representation.
There should be no restrictions on councillors standing for election to the Regional
Executive Committee in any section. We have considered whether Parliamentarians should
be allowed to stand for the Regional Executive Committee and given they already have an
important leadership role in the Party do not believe it is appropriate that they be allowed
to stand other than for a designated Parliamentary seat.
We therefore recommend Regional Executive Committee should comprise –
At least one half of the seats should be elected by OMOV ballot of all members every two
years
One third of the seats should be trade union seats
There should be a Women’s Officer, BAME Officer, Disability Officer and LGBT+ Officer on
every Regional Executive Committee
Where there is a Regional Women’s Committee, BAME Committee or Disability Committee
the relevant Officer will normally be a representative of and report to that respective
Committee/ Conference
A LGBT+ Officer elected at Regional Conference
A regional Young Labour Committee representative who will be elected by all Young Labour
members by OMOV ballot and report to the Regional Young Labour Committee/Conference
A Cooperative Party representative
Two representatives of Local and Regional Government who will be elected by OMOV ballot
of ALC members. In London there will be two Local Government representatives (again
elected by OMOV Ballot of ALC members) and a LGA representative.
There will be one representative of Parliamentarians (MP’s and MEP’s)
The Chair and Vice Chair of the Regional Executive Committee should be elected at Regional
Conference and will be existing members of the Regional Executive Committee.
Regional Parties should be charged with overseeing and coordinating the development of
policy at a regional and sub-regional level.
There will be an annual Regional Conference with a voting composition which mirrors
Annual Conference
There will be default Standing Orders for Regional Conference which will be available to all
members and affiliates
Policy should be debated is at the delegate based Annual Regional Conference. Sub–regional
policy for example in relation to City-Mayor structures would normally be debated at the
relevant Regional/ Local Government Committee but there may be circumstances where

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there are strategic issues which should be debated in a wider body. Regional and national
policy can be debated at the Annual Regional Conference. It will be the responsibility of the
Regional Executive Committee to oversee arrangements to ensure there is appropriate
democratic forum to debate sub-regional policy.
The sub-regional election of CLP based places elected by OMOV should be based on
numbers of members.
Policy passed at Regional Conferences should be feed into the NEC Policy Committee.

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