Question

Are parish councils required by law to publish the total number of cllr vacancies ?

Answer 1

Yes.  Notice of a vacancy or vacancies must be issued . It can be by the principal Authority as well as the parish or town council  If the parish is warded they must say which ward the vacancy or vacancies apply to. Electors need to know if the vacancies applies to their ward as they can often call for a by election rather than letting the council co opt.

Comments

I might be wrong but I think the question means how many unfilled seats there are
Most Councils publish a list of seats showing those filled and unfilled but as to if there is a legal requirement I have no idea

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Interesting perspective Jules. If that was the scope of the question there probably isn't a requirement to publish a specific statement saying how many Councillors are assigned and how many currently hold office. There may be an assumption that such information is inferred by reading all the minutes of council meetings that must be published. It could be argued that the Principal Authority should ensure all vacancies are filled if the council drags its feet over co option. .

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Yes. I did mean the number of unfilled seats. although the question is a bit open to interpretation.  I understood that if a vacancy arises eg through a Cllr resignation, then that vacancy has to be published / advertised within a legal timescale . I was thinking more about info on a council's website that has blanked out figures where vacancies exist - but in this case the number of blanked out figures are less than the actual number of Cllr vacancies

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Thanks for the clarification. If your council has a publication scheme, the Freedom of Information act requires the council to comply with it. Failure to do so means that a complaint can be made to the Information Commissioner who can order the council to comply.  If the council has adopted the model communication scheme, the first class of information is Class1 - Who we are and what we do and it is meant to provide organisational information. That  should include Contact details for Parish Clerk and Council members (named contacts where possible with telephone number and email address (if used))  If there are vacancies, it could be argued that these should be reported and identified in that category. So a complaint to the ICO should be lodged.