Local Authority Business (Conduct) (Hansard, 2 February 1989)

§ Mr. Gummer

The Government have considered very carefully the many views that have been expressed since the publication of Cm 433. On a number of points they are convinced that the legislation should be adapted to take account of these points. The Local Government and Housing Bill, presented yesterday, is accordingly drafted to give effect to these changes.

The points where the Bill differs from the proposals in the White Paper are as follows: a. The White Paper proposed that restrictions on public political activity should apply to chief executives of local authorities, chief officers and their deputies, and to the holders of posts which each local authority would be under a duty to designate on the basis of statutory criteria. The Government have decided that the restrictions on public political activity should also apply, in the first instance, to all local authority staff to whom the Widdicombe committee recommended that they should apply, that is, staff in the grade of principal officer and above. 357W Such staff would, however, be able to apply to an independent adjudicator for exemption from the restrictions, which would be given if their posts were, in the adjudicator's opinion, ones which could properly be so exempted. The adjudicator would be appointed by the Secretary of State after consultations with representatives of local government. b. The White Paper proposed that local authorities should be required to designate an officer with duties to advise on the management of the authority's service, and an officer to advise on questions of legality and propriety—the "monitoring officer". It was to be left to the authority whether the chief executive, if there was one, should hold either or both of these posts, except that the chief finance officer could not also be the monitoring officer. The Government are now persuaded that each local authority should be required to designate one officer as head of their paid service, and that that officer should have the duties to advise on management questions. It would still be left to each authority whether those duties should be combined with those of the monitoring officer or the chief finance officer; the combination of the two latter offices would still not be permitted. c. The White Paper proposed that there should be a ban on the appointment of advisers to political groups on councils. The Government have decided, in the light of the representations that they have received, that local authorities should be permitted to appoint a very limited number of assitants to political groups, to help councillors in those groups with their duties as councillors. A council will not be required to make such appointments, but where they decide to do so, each of the three largest political groups will be able to make one such appointment, provided that the group contains at least one tenth of the membership of the council. The terms of such appointment will broadly parallel the terms of appointment of special advisers in central Government: they will not be able to discharge functions on behalf of the council; they will not be permitted to manage other council staff: they will not be permitted to be paid at a rate of more than £13,500 a year; and they will be subject to the main restrictions on public political activity. Political groups will decide on their own choices, and will be expressly permitted to take the political views of candidates into account. d. As an additional safeguard on the appointment of senior local authority officers, the Government have decided that the monitoring officer should be required to report to the authority, in every case in which an appointment is made by the full council, a committee or a subcommittee, either that, in his opinion, the appointment can be made consistently with enactments and standing orders and without taking into account any matter which could not properly be taken into account, or the reasons why he cannot so certify.