4.1 Taking such collaboration one step forward, the authorities may wish to take steps to encourage each authority to take compatible decisions. For this purpose, the authorities may wish to establish joint bodies at member and/or officer level. Those joint bodies, in the form of a Joint Committee and/or a Joint Officer Board, can be either advisory (making recommendations to each authority, but each authority taking its own decisions) or executive (having powers delegated to take decisions on behalf of each of the participating authorities). In many instances, such joint bodies combine both features, having powers delegated from each of the participating authorities to progress the joint project, but with certain key decisions being reserved for decision by each separate authority.
4.2 The Joint Committee or Joint Officer Board is a mechanism for joint decision-making, as its decisions amount in law to decisions of each of the participating authorities. But the Joint Committee or Joint Officer Board is not a separate legal entity, and so cannot own land, employ staff or enter a contract in its own name. Instead, the Joint Committee or Joint Officer Board may have the power to authorise one or more of the participating authorities to employ staff and make them available to the Joint Committee, acquiring land and making its available for the joint project, or entering a contract. An authority which takes on such a role on behalf of the other participating authorities is known as a "Lead Authority" (see below).
4.3 Such a Joint Committee or Joint Officer Board is set up by each of the participating authorities agreeing to establish it, and delegating powers to it. Where a participating authority operates an executive form of governance and the delegated powers relate to executive functions, then the decision to set up the Joint Committee or Joint Officer Board would rest with the executive of that authority, and the executive would only be able to appoint executive members to the Joint Committee. Otherwise the decision would rest with Council, or might be delegated to a Committee or a Sub-Committee of Council.
4.4 Such Joint Committee arrangements are easy to set up, if the participating authorities are of a like mind, and are very flexible, as the constitution of the Joint Committee or Joint Officer Board, and the powers delegated to it, can always be changed by a decision of the participating authorities, and any participating authority can simply withdraw from participation. The Joint Committee or Joint Officer Board relies on the participating authorities for funding, and a participating authority can always take its own independent decision on a matter even though it has previously delegated that power to the Joint Committee or Joint Officer Board. So it is usual, especially where the Joint Committee of Joint Board is taking on substantial financial liabilities, for each participating authority to enter a legally-binding Inter Authority Agreement to ensure each authority's continuing commitment and participation, and to indemnify each other participating authority against the consequences of withdrawal or independent decision making by another authority.