Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Legal and Democratic Services which provided Members with the outcome of the consultation with all Members regarding the Council’s approach to publishing Members home addresses on their Register of Interests and consider whether to change the approach (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

Councillor Tinsley referred to ballot papers that he thought had been consulted on in terms of what information would be included and asked if this was correct.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer responded that previously when the Local Government Association had consulted on this it was on both the electoral and register of interests system. He continued that the change had already been made to the electoral system so that candidates when standing for election can choose whether to disclose their home address on the ballot paper, or simply the electoral division in which they live. At that point Government did not make the equivalent changes to the register of interests system. The electoral system was referenced within the report, but this was not something that the Standards Committee needed to consider.

Councillor Tinsley indicated that he would not like to see a situation where it was possible to use whether you do or do not declare your address for political purposes. He continued that a local connection with the area was important for Members and people do use the fact that people are local as part of their political stance at election. They must create a situation where there was no way to get the upper hand by publishing an address and a blanket ban would be the best approach. He stated that there was a high response rate to the consultation and a clear preference for an opt in approach and suggested that the issue was worthy of a full debate at Council.

Councillor Atkinson referred to declarations of interests at meetings that should be made clearer and provided an example of not always having to leave the meeting and the ability to still vote in some circumstances when declaring an interest.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer responded that as part of the Members induction process they do provide training on the Code of Conduct and Members Declarations of Interest. If Members had any issues throughout their term of office, then they could contact Officers and provided details of the types of interests. He further clarified that Members were not able to declare an interest and still vote. He stated that the report today was considering register of interests and home addresses.

In response to a question from Parish Councillor Foote-Wood the Deputy Monitoring Officer stated that it was an obligation on Members to register their interests following the guidance and failing to declare a disclosable pecuniary interest was a criminal offence. It was obligatory for County Councillors in this situation to register as a disclosable pecuniary interest their home address if it falls within the boundary of the authority.

Councillor Tinsley asked if you chose to opt out what would the declaration of interest state on the website. He continued that he would like to see that the Member had declared an interest in land within County Durham and that area of land was their home address which is located in their electoral division that would maintain that they have a local connection to the area.

Councillor Tinsley then moved that the Standards Committee recommend to full Council that they move to an opt in system and that Members who opt out demonstrate a connection to the local area.

Councillor Mavin sought clarification if you had to live within a certain mileage of the area to stand as a County Councillor.

The Chair advised that it was live or work within the County boundary.

Following further discussions, Councillor Peeke seconded the recommendation by Councillor Tinsley.

Resolved: That the Standards Committee recommend to Council that the approach to the publication of Members home addresses is changed so that all home addresses will be treated as sensitive and only the electoral division in which they live will be published unless a Member opts to have their home address published.