Usual procedure and rules of register of interest

Question

As most possibly know, the district council has a section on their websites(at least ours does) of Parish/town councils which includes a register of interest section. Our parish hasnt been updated in this section to at least include current councillors(though the parish council itself took months to update their own site to say who was still on the council.) On the district council website on our parish register of interest it hasn't been updated to say who is on the council, some forums don't look like they have been filled out accurately ie say someone has a property or business, it hasn't been disclosed. What is the requirements for this, and how long does it normally take to be updated?

Answer 1

The declarations must be completed within 28 days of appointment and there are penalties for an individual councillor failing to do so. The original document should be forwarded to your District Council immediately upon completion, as they are responsible for member conduct. The Parish Council should keep a digital copy for display on its website. The accuracy of the information on the declaration forms is a matter for the individual, not the council.

Answer 2

The member has 28 days from taking office to submit their form and they alone are responsible for the content and accuracy
Updating websites will be a matter for whichever organisation owns the website
Reporting incomplete declarations to the MO is a waste of time - it’s meant to be a strict liability criminal offence to fail or to pay insufficient attention to the accuracy of a DoI but it’s not like the MO will actually “do”anything other than ask that the errors / omissions be corrected

Comments

Thanks for your answer, whilst it looks like there is not much that can be done, i can probably bring it up at the next meeting as it's been 2 months since one of the councillors have been appointed. Hopefully the district councillor will be there otherwise i wont be allowed to speak at all(the chairperson unfortunatley interrupts when i ask a question)