Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, rightly pointed out that Clause 1(2) focuses on the council’s role so that members of public are clear about what their elected representatives do and, should they be interested in taking the next step, how they might go about becoming a councillor and what support will be available to them should they be elected. Amendment 8, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, takes this further by allowing councils to point citizens towards local political parties by providing the contact details and other relevant information. I reinforce what the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, said, about relevant information. It was a point well made. I assume that the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, is trying to plug what he perceives to be a gap in the information that members of the public will need to be given if they are to find out what councillors do and how to become one. The amendment would add an unnecessary level of prescriptive detail to the Bill. The Bill places councils under a duty to promote understanding of how to become a councillor. We expect this to include an explanation of the political party selection process as well as of the fact that people can stand as independents. In the region of 6 per cent of councillors do so. In discharging this duty, some councils may wish to provide contact details for local political parties in a non-partisan way and in accordance with relevant legislation. We will set out in guidance that this is a route that some councils may wish to consider. I again reinforce what the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, said; while Clause 1 places a duty on local authorities, let us not forget that there is an important role for the political parties in promoting democracy and encouraging local people to stand for office. It is open to all political parties to publicise their activities in an authority’s area, the work of their members who serve on the council and how people may become members of that party. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, rightly pointed to Section 2 of the Local Government Act 1986, which prohibits publicity designed to affect public support for a political party. Local authorities are also required under that section to have regard to the provisions of the Code of recommended practice on local authority publicity before coming to any decision on publicity. As noble Lords will know, the code is commonly known as the publicity code. It was introduced in 1988 and last amended in 2001. It seeks among things to assist local authorities when making decisions about publicity to ensure that resources are not used to publish material that could be perceived as having a party-political purpose. My department is consulting the local government sector and stakeholders on the future of the publicity code. The consultation seeks views on its effectiveness as an instrument for protecting public money while allowing councils to issue effective publicity to keep their communities informed of the services that they provide and encourage greater participation in local democracy. It would be premature to make changes to the rules relating to local authority publicity without considering carefully the responses received to our consultation exercise. The consultation was launched on 12 December; it is not yet clear in which direction the responses will send us. However, responses received will inform the guidance that the department issues to local authorities to support them in their new duty to promote democracy. The guidance will make direct reference to how the publicity code impacts on councils in their new role and will clarify what it does and does not prevent them doing. We will ensure that comments made by noble Lords during this debate are fully considered as part of the consultation exercise on the future of the publicity code and the drafting of any guidance issued by the department to local authorities. The consultation ends on 12 March 2009. We hope that a wide range of people will contribute their views. It is usual for public consultations of this nature to generate more than 1,000 responses. Given what I have outlined, I hope that the noble Lord will be more reassured and will understand where our proposals are coming from.