Agenda item

The Councill considered a report of the Director of Legal and Democratic Services which informed of 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 recommendations from the Standards Committee (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Deputy Monitoring Officer informed Council that 109 responses had been received from Members to the consultation, with over half favouring an opt in approach.  Constitution Working Group had referred the matter to the Standards Committee where it had been recommended to agree to the opt in approach, with the addition of the to show the electoral division for each Member. 

The Deputy Monitoring Officer advised that this would only apply to Members home addresses and not to other properties owned, unless deemed sensitive, on a case by case basis.

The Leader of the Council said she was grateful to the Monitoring Officer and her team for consulting members on this important issue. The high proportion of responses received to the consultation demonstrated the strength of feeling and concern that Members had regarding the abuse and intimidation experienced by local Councillors.

The research by the Local Government Association (LGA) indicated that sadly, the number of incidents of abuse experienced by local Councillors was increasing. In responding to the consultation, many of our Councillors had referred to their own experiences.

Following publication of the LGA research, the Minister for Local Government wrote to Councils to ensure that all Members were aware of the ability to request that an interest be treated as sensitive and to request that all such requests be treated sympathetically. The Monitoring Officer had and did treat all such requests sympathetically and would proactively recommend that interests were treated as sensitive in response to particular incidents. 

In light of the increasing number of calls for changes in legislation, the findings of the LGA research and the views of County Councillors, the proposal in this report was proportionate. The Standards Committee made the helpful recommendation that the Electoral Division in which a Member lives is recorded on the form instead of the home address. Members who wished to have their home address published could opt to do so. The Leader moved the recommendations.

Councillor R Crute seconded the recommendations. 

In response to a question from Councillor Wood, the Deputy Monitoring Officer advised that there was no disclosable interest within the report for members to have to declare an interest.

In response to a question from Councillor Tinsley, the Deputy Monitoring Officer advised that these changes if approved, would come into effect before the elections in 2025, and as soon as practicable once checks had been carried out.

Resolved:

(a)      That the responses to the Member consultation and feedback from the Standards Committee on 7 June 2024 be noted; and

(b)      That all Members’ 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, be agreed.