Subject to this constitution, where necessary, the Party Secretaries are responsible for the day-to-day management of the Party in trust of the Membership of the Party, in line with their roles as Officers of the Party, but they must seek to delegate Party work to the Membership via the Working Groups and Committees insofar as this is feasible or advisable.

An individual Party Secretary may not delegate their power as a Party Secretary to another person except by proxy or by the appointment of an alternate Party Secretary as provided for in the Party Constitution.

The Party Secretaries may instruct any person to take any action in agreement with Party Consensus and thus is in the interest of the Membership of the Party so long as this is neither in breach of this document or the law of the Nation. However, any Party member or participant may refuse such an instruction without prejudice to their membership or participation.

The Party Secretaries may invite the attendance of any person to a meeting of the Party Secretaries and to address the meeting.

The general rule about decision-making by Party Secretaries is that any decision of the Party Secretaries outside of their role as Secretaries must win a vote at a meeting (following the rules for votes in Part 9 of this document), or be provably as a direct consequence of a decision arising from a qualifying Assembly Moot or Party Thing.

Decisions are always presented in the form of a digital working document signed by way of participation of the Party Secretaries. If required, a physical copy of any such document may be produced with physical signatures.

A decision may not be taken in accordance with this article if the eligible Party Secretaries would not have formed a quorum at such a meeting

A decision of the Party Secretaries on any contractual matter not in direct accordance with established Party Consensus must be ratified by the passing of a special resolution of the Party Secretaries in a Secretarial Committee meeting, whether physical, postal, or digital. The Treasurer must always be present and holds the deciding vote in case of a tie in such decisions regardless of other provisions in this document. It should be understood that this is an emergency decision, and should it be taken without the presence of an emergency, participant Party officers are in breach of the letter and spirit of this Constitution.

Any Party Secretary may propose a written resolution by giving written notice to the other Party Secretaries. This should be made publicly available within the Party's digital communications platforms.

A Party Secretary's written resolution is adopted when all the Party Secretaries who would have been entitled to vote on such resolution if it had been proposed at a meeting of the Party Secretaries have:

• signed one or more copies of it; or
• otherwise indicated their agreement to it in writing.

A Party Secretary's written resolution is not adopted if the number of Party Secretaries who have signed it is less than the quorum for Party Secretaries' meetings.

Any Party Secretary may call a Party Secretaries' meeting by giving notice of the meeting to the other Party Secretaries.

Notice of any Party Secretaries' meeting must indicate:

• its proposed date and time;
• where it is to take place; and
• if it is anticipated that Party Secretaries participating in the meeting will not be in the same place, how it is proposed that they should communicate with each other during the meeting.

Written notice of a Party Secretaries' meeting must be given to each Party Secretary.

Notice of a Party Secretaries' meeting need not be given to Party Secretaries who waive their entitlement to notice of that meeting, by giving notice to that effect to the Party not more than three days before the date on which the meeting is held. Where such notice is given after (in good faith that it could not have been given before) the meeting has been held, that does not affect the validity of the meeting, or any of the business conducted at it, unless a Party Secretary should appeal that they have been unfairly excluded; this appeal should be lodged with the Comittee for Resolutions at the earliest possible date.

Subject to the articles, Party Secretaries participate in a Party Secretaries' meeting, or part of a Party Secretaries' meeting, when:

• the meeting has been called and takes place in accordance with the articles, and
• they can each communicate to the others any information or opinions they have on any particular item of the business of the meeting

In determining whether Party Secretaries are participating in a Party Secretaries' meeting, it is irrelevant where any Party Secretary is or how they communicate with each other.

If all the Party Secretaries participating in a meeting are not in the same place, they may decide that the meeting is to be treated as taking place wherever any of them is.

At a Party Secretaries' meeting, unless a quorum is participating, no proposal is to be voted on, except a proposal to call another meeting.

The quorum for Party Secretaries' meetings may be fixed from time to time in Secretarial Committee meetings of the Trustees except that a quorum must never be less than two, and unless otherwise fixed it is two.

If the total number of Party Secretaries for the time being is less than the quorum required, the Party Secretaries must not take any decision other than any decision required to enable the election of the appropriate Party Officials by the Membership and the assemblies of the appropriate Working Groups.

The chair of Party Secretaries' meetings shall be the General Secretary of the Party, elected as indicated by the Party Constitution.

The person so appointed for the time being shall be known as the chairperson, for the duration of that meeting.

If the chairperson is not participating in a Party Secretaries' meeting within ten minutes of the time at which it was to start, the participating Party Secretaries may appoint one of their number to chair it.

In the event of equality of votes for and against a resolution, the chairperson shall not have a casting vote. Instead, a Party Consensus decision-making event will be called on the matter.

But this does not apply if, in accordance with the articles, the chairperson or other Party Secretary is not to be counted as participating in the decision-making process for quorum or voting purposes.

If a proposed decision of the Party Secretaries is concerned with an actual or proposed transaction or arrangement by the Party in which a Party Secretary is interested, that Party Secretary is not to be counted as participating in the decision-making process for quorum or voting purposes.

Last previous sub article shall not apply in any one of the following circumstances, that is to say when:

the Party by ordinary resolution dis-applies the provision of the articles which would otherwise prevent a Party Secretary from being counted as participating in the decision-making process; or

the Party Secretary's interest cannot reasonably be regarded as likely to give rise to a conflict of interest.

For the purposes of this article, references to proposed decisions and decision making processes include any Party Secretaries' meeting or part of a Party Secretaries' meeting.

If a question arises at a meeting of Party Secretaries as to the right of a Party Secretary to participate in the meeting (or part of the meeting) for voting or quorum purposes, any business of the meeting relevant to the participation shall be adjourned for no longer than to allow sufficient time for the secretary to give notice of the adjourned date. The first business at the adjourned meeting shall be as to the entitlement of those present to vote on the adjourned question.

If at the adjourned meeting the question remains unresolved, the Party Secretaries shall call a Secretarial Committee meeting of the Party, for the purpose of resolving the issue.

The Party Secretaries must ensure that the Party keeps a record, in soft copy, for as long as the Party remains extant, of copies of all resolution, minutes of all proceedings of Secretarial Committee meetings and of every decision taken by the Party Secretaries.

A person ceases to be a Party Secretary as soon as:

• that person ceases to be a Party Secretary by virtue of any provision of the Companies Act 2006 or is prohibited from being a Party Secretary by law, or their term in their Secretarial Role comes to an end and they either do not seek re-election or fail to be re-elected, and when
• that person is inactive without explanation for longer than a period of 30 days and fails to respond to a request for clarification from the general secretaries (or from members of their assembly) for another 21 days. Either period may be shortened to half where the remaining Party Secretaries are in agreement that quorum is difficult to achieve due to the absence. “Inactive” is here defined as failing to attend meetings or respond to requests for information relating to failure to attend meetings, or failure to respond to requests for information from relevant Assembly members.
• a registered medical practitioner who is treating that person gives a written opinion to the Party stating that person has become physically or mentally incapable of fulfilling their duties as Party Secretary and may remain so for more than three months (confirmation being at the discretion of the Secretaries of Resolution);
• notification is received by the Party from the Party Secretary that the Party Secretary is resigning from their Secretarial Role, and such resignation has taken effect in accordance with its terms;
• it is found by consensus of the Party's Committee of Resolutions, or by judgement of a disciplinary hearing by the Secretaries of Resolution, that a Party Secretary be removed as a Party Secretary with immediate effect.

By default Party Secretaries shall not receive remuneration of any kind other than expenses from the Party as a result of their role as a Party Secretary. However,

• the Financial Working Group may, by consensus of that assembly, overrule this article with the approval of the Committee of Resolutions (by consensus of that assembly in turn), and order the Secretarial Committee to pass a resolution awarding remuneration provided the Treasurer also approves. The wording of that resolution shall be determined by consensus of the Secretaries of Resolution.
• the Party may re-imburse a Party Secretary for payments reasonably made by them in the course of discharging their responsibilities to the Party; all such expenses must be reported to the Financial Working Group in whatever format the Financial Working Group requires. The Committee of Resolutions is empowered to view such documentation at any time, without question, immediately.

Every Party Secretary has the right to speak at a Secretarial Committee meeting.

The General Secretary or chairperson of a Secretarial Committee meeting may declare that the subject matter of a Party Secretary's speech is not relevant to a matter on the agenda and may refuse to allow that person to continue to speak, but this may be nullified by quorum after a vote called by any Party Secretary other than the speaker.

The Party Secretaries may make whatever arrangements they consider appropriate to enable those attending a Secretarial Committee meeting to exercise their rights to speak or vote at it, including making arrangements for postal or electronic voting.

Two or more persons who are not in the same place as each other attend a Secretarial Committee meeting if their circumstances are such that if they have (or were to have) rights to speak and vote at that meeting, they are (or would be) able to exercise them.

Notice of every Secretarial Committee meeting must be given to every Party Secretary, and such documentation must be equally available to Members of the Party, and accordingly the provisions of section 313(1) of the Companies Act 2006 shall not apply to the proceedings of the Party.

No business other than the appointment of the chairperson of the meeting is to be transacted at a Secretarial Committee meeting if the persons attending it do not constitute a quorum.

The quorum for Secretarial Committee meetings may be fixed from time to time by an ordinary resolution, except that: a quorum must never be less than two, unless there are fewer Party Secretaries currently appointed than that number, and unless otherwise fixed it is two.

If there is a General Secretary, then the General Secretary shall chair a Secretarial Committee meeting if present and willing to do so. In the event of no General Secretary being in role, then either the Secretary of the Committee for Resolutions or the Secretary for the Society of Policy shall act as the chair.

The person chairing a meeting in accordance with this article is referred to as "the chairperson of the meeting".

The chairperson of the meeting may permit any other person who is neither a Member of the Party, nor otherwise entitled to exercise the rights of a Member in relation to a Secretarial Committee meeting, to attend and speak at a Secretarial Committee meeting, but any such individual must not be present, and must not take part in, any direct decision-making or vote.

If the persons attending a Secretarial Committee meeting within half an hour of the time at which the meeting was due to start do not constitute a quorum, or if during a meeting a quorum ceases to be present, the chairperson of the meeting must adjourn it.

The chairperson of the meeting may adjourn a Secretarial Committee meeting at which a quorum is present if either:

• the meeting consents to an adjournment, or
• it appears to the chairperson of the meeting that an adjournment is necessary to protect the safety of any person attending the meeting or ensure that the business of the meeting is conducted in an orderly manner.

The chairperson of the meeting must adjourn a Secretarial Committee meeting if directed to do so by the meeting.

When adjourning a Secretarial Committee meeting, the chairperson of the meeting must:

• either specify the time and place to which it is adjourned or state that it is to continue at a time and place to be fixed by the Party Secretaries, and
• have regard to any directions as to the time and place of any adjournment which have been given by the meeting.

If the continuation of an adjourned meeting is to take place more than 14 days after it was adjourned, the Party must give at least 7 clear days' notice of it (that is, excluding the day of the adjourned meeting and the day on which the notice is given):

• to the same persons to whom notice of the Party's Secretarial Committee meetings is required to be given, and
• containing the same information which such notice is required to contain.

No business may be transacted at an adjourned Secretarial Committee meeting which could not properly have been transacted at the meeting if the adjournment had not taken place.

Any resolution originating from Party Consensus will simply be accepted by the Party Secretaries and passed unanimously, in line with their duty to operate the Party in Trust of the Members.

An ordinary resolution to be proposed at a Secretarial Committee meeting may be amended by ordinary resolution if: notice of the proposed amendment is given to the Party in writing by a person entitled to vote at the Secretarial Committee meeting at which it is to be proposed not less than 48 hours before the meeting is to take place (or such later time as the chairperson of the meeting may determine), and

the proposed amendment does not, in the reasonable opinion of the chairperson of the meeting, materially alter the scope of the resolution.

A special resolution to be proposed at a Secretarial Committee meeting may be amended by ordinary resolution, if:

• the chairperson of the meeting proposes the amendment at the Secretarial Committee meeting at which the resolution is to be proposed, and
• the amendment does not go beyond what is necessary to correct a grammatical or other non-substantive error in the resolution.

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