Redacted signatures on minutes

Question

I just wanted to check why it is that the signature of the person signing the minutes of a parish council meeting is redacted but the signature of a parish clerk on the relevant agenda for the meeting is not redacted?
in the former case I assume it’s because it’s a breach of GDPR.  If so then if the person signing a set of minutes could be shown to have consented to their signature being published would that overcome the breach of data protection?

In the latter case, I assume it’s because the clerk’s signature is required on the agenda and the agenda needs to be made available to the public 3 clear days before the meeting in order properly to convene the meeting.
Is it also the case that as it is the clerk who is actually doing the job of making the agenda public it would be difficult for them to argue that they didn’t give consent to their own signature being published?

Answer 1

The clerk can chose to sign the agenda in anyway they consider suitable - using a different font is an option, as well as signing them or just putting their name.  The choice is theirs.

We don't publish the signed minutes and instead file those in our office.  We published the unsigned version prior to signature - there is no legal requirement for the minutes to be published with a signature.

Answer 2

The law on agendas states:

(2)Three clear days at least before a meeting of a parish council—

(a)notice of the time and place of the intended meeting shall be fixed in some conspicuous place in the parish and, where the meeting is called by members of the council, the notice shall be signed by those members and shall specify the business proposed to be transacted at the meeting; and

[F2(b)a summons to attend the meeting, specifying the business proposed to be transacted at the meeting and certified by the proper officer of the council, shall be sent to every member of the council by an appropriate method.]

[F3(2A)In sub-paragraph (2)—

(a)“authenticated” means signed or otherwise authenticated in such manner as the proper officer thinks fit; and

So it only has to be authenticated, not necessarily by means of a signature. And it's only the version received by councillors that needs to be authenticated. The version published could have this redacted.

As for presuming consent, this is a no-no. Under GDPR consent has to be explicit and informed.