Declaration of acceptance of office form - do local government electors need to be informed?

Question

Hi

Does a parish council have any duty or responsibility to inform (meeting minutes?) local government electors, that a person elected as a parish councillor has signed and dated his/her prescribed form of declaration of acceptance of office and delivered it to the parish council before or at the meeting following his/her election, or following a decision by the parish council at that meeting, to allow that person to deliver his/her completed form to the parish council before or at the next meeting.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thank you

Sam

Answer 1

Section 83 doesn't place any requirement to publicise the fact, but I always record it in the minutes, for the avoidance of doubt.

Comments

HI DtC

Many thanks again for your advice.

However, as a professional clerk would you expect the relevant meeting minutes to reflect information pertaining to s83(4)(a) following the election of a new chairman at that meeting - i.e. information showing the new chairman had signed and dated the requisite form immediately following his election as chairman and before the meeting continued any further rather than a single line announcing who the new chairman was?

Thank you.

Sam

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The election of chairman at the annual meeting should be a single agenda item, and come first on the agenda. The legislation provides the potential for the declaration to be signed at a later date, but only by resolution, which would need to be recorded in the minutes, so in my view, the minutes should state clearly whether it has been signed at that moment or will be signed later.

I always pause the meeting to obtain the signature at that time, for both new councillors and election of Chair, and record this fact in the minutes.

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Hi DtC

Thanks again for your professional advice.

I am now of the belief that following the result of their uncontested elections last year, none of the councillors at my parish council have signed and dated any prescribed forms of declaration of acceptance of office, and neither has the 'chairman' signed any prescribed form of declaration of acceptance of office as chairman.

This is in addition to the councillors (over half the quorum of the parish council) who have not registered any DPIs since they first entered office several years ago.

Best wishes

Sam

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Then you need to inform your monitoring officer about these issues as they could be breaking the law and the penalty is severe if they have not submitted their register of interest forms...

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Hi MrsAbster

Thank you for your reply.

The MO was informed of the councillors failures to register their DPIs.  He in turn notified the police which was some 4 weeks ago.  To date I have not received any update from the MO.

I have no doubt the police are treating my legitimate concerns with contempt, as the councillors continue to freely go about parish council business without a care in the world.

Kind regards

Sam