REGISTERABLE INTERESTS FORM

Question

If a Councillor fails to declare any registerable interest within 28 days of appointment what are the consequences?    I assume if any disclosable pecuniary interest is not declared it is for the Monitoring Officer to instigate any action but  are there any  Council imposed sanctions available (other than code of conduct) ?

Answer 1

If pursued there is recourse for a fine of £5000 under the Localism Act 2011. They could then be disqualified as a councillor. Not disclosing a pecuniary interest is bigger than the council.

Answer 2

It is a criminal offence not to register them. So potentially a criminal record as well as the fine and being disqualified as a councillor for up to five years.

In reality though the monitoring officers are not that interested in doing their job so the chances of getting the above for a minor offence are fairly remote.

Comments

The response from the MO when a local Cllr was shown to have failed to have completed his DoI was that “…he’s corrected it now so it’s not in the public interest to do anything about it.’

There had been a planning application granted for land which was partially owned by that Cllr resulting in a significant land value increase and there was a <15k pa contract which was not declared.
But because he “corrected” it after the omission was pointed out - no action taken.
The police would not prosecute because LA had the ability to prosecute but wouldn’t.
In THEORY there are potential penalties for failure or even carelessness in completion of DoI, in PRACTICE, like so much of local council activity, there is apathy, incompetence and impunity.

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"In reality though the monitoring officers are not that interested in doing their job so the chances of getting the above for a minor offence are fairly remote."

Couldn't agree more.

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So lets be clear other than going down the code of conduct line there is no independent action a  Councillor or Council can take ?

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You could try reporting the matter directly to the police.

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Answer for Samuel - done that! Referred to old bill in the (correct as it turned out) assumption that MO would not act.
The PC that came out to discuss, to be fair, was wholly ‘on side’ and explained that he had some personal parish council experience.
He took all the details, passed it up the command chain only to find that CPS would not act in such instance since LA is a prosecuting authority in their own right for certain elements (this being 1) and since the MO was disinclined to act, so we’re the CPS.
Ever decreasing circles….

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Can I be clear please.  Our PC has form for registerable interests. It includes the usual disclosable pecuniary interests plus some other non pecuniary interests.  Is the offence mentioned above only applicable to the pecuniary interests or are all interests included .  Also what is the usual sanction (discussion/voting) for non pecuniary interests (we don't allow voting but most PCs seem to allow both).

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It is a criminal offence to:

- Fail to notify the Monitoring Officer of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest within 28 days of election
- Fail to disclose a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest at a meeting if it is not on the register
- Fail to notify the Monitoring Officer within 28 days of a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is not on the register that you have disclosed to a meeting
- Participate in any discussion or vote on a matter in which you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (without a dispensation)
- Knowingly or recklessly providing information that is false or misleading in notifying the Monitoring Officer of a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or in disclosing such interest to a meeting

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@RoundAgainCoxn - I never had the opportunity to speak to a police officer. The Force simply sat on my complaint for several months and then it made a unilateral a decision to take NFA.

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Well it would then seem pointless to register for some non pecuniary interests (like trustee of the  Community Centre) if there is no legal Monitoring Officer remedy and the PC allows discussion and voting.    It begs the question what is the point of it.

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Yep - what is the point....

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I’m afraid this is all too common as the Government brings out legislation which is then ignored
Planning is another area where Local Authorities have failed to use legislation which breeds contempt towards the system and leads to incidents like the destruction of the Crooked House