Parish Council Agendas And Minutes

Question

I would like to know what the law is in relation to Parish Council agendas and minutes?

My parish council has not published on its website any agendas or minutes of meetings since May 2024. They have financials above the £25k mark.

Is it unlawful not to publish? Or what can be done to a council that has failed to publish agendas and minutes?

Answer 1

Section 4(b) of the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 requires that agendas must be published on a website

Section 19(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires that the council publishes a Publication Scheme and published information according to that scheme. Minutes and agendas should be part of the scheme. Technically they do not have to publish to a website, but this is highly recommended if they have a website. If they are not publishing to a website the Publication Scheme should tell you how you can get hold of the information. The ICO would be port-of-call if they are not complying with this law.

Comments

would the district councils monitoring officer be a port of call?

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District councils only really get involved with breaches of the Code of Conduct by individual councillors. Don't think they would get involved with a parish council not following the law. That would be more of a thing for the ombudsman but they would only get involved if you could demonstrate some sort of loss.

Answer 2

Good councillor guides tates that PC"publish certain information such as accounts notice of meetings, agendas meeting notes"( minutes)

Answer 3

Are you sure they have had meetings in this period? Not uncommon for Parish Councils to not have any meetings over the summer.

Comments

yes they have made comments on social media about meetings but have not published an agenda or minutes since may 2024. They defintiley met in June July not August and recently as yesterday
The publication scheme states website

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In that case you should write to the council and request they publish the documents.
If they don't then you can make a complaint to the ICO

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Sorry for ignorance but what’s the ICO ? I’m having problems with the clerk using her personal friendship with neighbour

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The Information Commisioner's Office - the people in charge of the rules about confidentiality of personal data and such like.

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Thanks for reply where will I find my local ICO email / address etc ?

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https://ico.org.uk