Key Facts D. Quorum

Meetings of Parish and Town Councils cannot proceed if there are insufficient councillors present to form a quorum.  The Chair may decide to cancel the planned meeting if the Clerk receives enough apologies prior to the meeting to make the meeting inquorate. A new date, time and venue for the next ordinary meeting or an extraordinary should be published as soon as possible. 

Local Government Act 1972 Schedule 12, paragraph 12 says 

....no business shall be transacted at a meeting of a parish council unless at least one-third of the whole number of members of the council are present at the meeting; but, notwithstanding anything in that paragraph, in no case shall the quorum be less than three.

Meetings of full council require the attendance of at least one-third of the total number of councillors (i.e. council seats), or three, whichever is greater. In other words, the quorum for councils will be as follows:-

Seats              Quorum

Up to 9            3

10 - 12            4

13 - 15            5

16 - 18            6

The quorum for a committee or sub-committee should be set out in the Terms of Reference for that Committee or Sub-committee.  Usually the committee for a committee or sub-committee is not less than 3.  It is not set in legislation.  

Where a Parish / Town Council does not have enough councillors in seats to be quorate following elections or due to resignations/ deaths/ prolonged non-attendance contact the District Council (Committee administration/ Elections team/ Democratic services, etc) who may be able to appoint councillors to make the Parish/Town Council quorate again.

Special arrangements apply to calculating a quorum under paragraph 45 of the Local Government Act 1972 where members of the Parish/ Town Council are disqualified.