Contact: Jeff Pattison, tel: 01962 847321, email: [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 A consultation paper has been received by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) concerning a review of the regulatory framework governing the political activities of local government employees. The paper covers the discrete areas of:-

· Restrictions on employee's political activities generally

· The role of the independent adjudicator

· Political assistants

· Employees as elected members

1.2 This report sets out a draft response to the proposals contained within the consultation paper for members' consideration.

1.3 The Office of the Deputy Prime Minster require responses to the consultation paper by 19 November 2004. The intention is to use this report as the Authority's response together with any further comments that members wish to raise.

2 Governments proposals for the review of the political activities of local government employees

2.1 Restrictions on employee's political activities

As members will be fully aware, those posts which are politically restricted include all chief and deputy chief officers, the monitoring officer, political assistants and any person whose salary currently exceeds £32,127. It also embraces those who give advice to the authority on a regular basis or who speak to journalists or broadcasters on behalf of the authority.

The restrictions on the political activity of those occupying politically restricted posts means that the post holder must not:-

(i) Announce an intention to be a candidate for election to the House of Commons, the European Parliament or local authority;

(ii) Act as an election agent or sub agent;

(iii) Be an officer or committee member of a political party if this involves general management;

(iv) Canvass on behalf of a political party or candidate for election.

These provisions have been in force since the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. They are, therefore, firmly embedded into the local government culture and well understood. The principle behind these provisions is to ensure that a politically impartial workforce can and does command the confidence of members of all political persuasions. It should also command a similar perception on behalf of the general public.

ODPM suggestions

Although the Government does not consider it appropriate to alter the type of posts subject to political restriction, they do ask the question as to whether or not it would be appropriate to raise the salary threshold for determining whether posts are politically restricted. This would obviously have the effect of reducing the number of posts affected. They also contemplate whether or not it would be appropriate to allow local government employees to participate in national rather than local politics and whether or not it would be feasible to grant general exceptions from political restrictions for holders of certain posts or alter the criteria so that applications to the independent adjudicator for the relaxation of these provisions might be more capable of being granted.

Comment

It is suggested that the existing provisions, having been in existence for 15 years, are well understood by those employees to which they apply. Furthermore although there was an initial challenge to the introduction of these provisions to the European Court on human rights grounds, this challenge was unsuccessful. The perception is that for the vast majority of employees affected by these provisions, it is not a major area of concern for them. It is suggested, therefore, that this is an appropriate financial threshold for these political restrictions to apply.

The perception that these existing provisions are accepted by local government staff is perhaps reinforced by the fact that the independent adjudicator (referred to later in this report and one of whose roles includes granting exemptions from political restriction) considered only 23 such applications in 2003 (21 of which were granted).

It is therefore recommended that the existing provisions including the financial threshold at which they should apply, should continue without change.

2.2 Independent adjudicator

The independent adjudicator is appointed by the Secretary of State and his role includes considering applications from local authority employees for exemption from political restriction, issuing directions to local authorities requiring posts to be included in the list of politically restricted posts and giving general advice. As mentioned in the previous section, the independent adjudicator considered only 23 applications for exemption in 2003.

ODPM suggestions

The ODPM suggest two alternatives to the current arrangements. The first is that requests for exemption from political restrictions could be undertaken by the local authority's monitoring officer who has other responsibilities which are similar in maintaining standards of conduct. The alternative is for this role to be carried out by the Standards Board for England, although currently it has no role in respect of employees.

Comment

The role of the independent adjudicator is with respect, a Cinderella one. Very little information issues from the independent adjudicator and as noted above very few applications for exemption are considered by him. It would appear unnecessary to continue with this role which it is suggested could be carried out by the local authority's monitoring officer. This is unlikely to result in much, if any, additional work for the vast majority of monitoring officers.

2.3 Political assistants

As members will be fully aware, under the Local Government and Housing Act, a local council may, if it chooses, appoint up to three persons to be employed as political assistants to work with the three main political parties of an authority. However, these provisions do not apply to combined Fire Authorities and therefore no comment on proposals regarding this issue have been included within this report.

2.4 Employees as elected members

The Local Government Act 1972 prohibits Councillors from becoming employees of the same Authority. However, subject to the restrictions on employees political activities mentioned earlier in this report, they may, as an employee of one local authority, be a member of another. An employee of one local authority who is a member of another is entitled to a maximum of 208 hours per year of paid leave for carrying out their duties as an elected member of another authority. These restrictions were imposed to prevent the abuse known as "twin tracking" and came out of recommendations from the Widdicombe report.

ODPM suggestions

With these provisions, the ODPM merely asks whether the current number of paid hours should be increased or decreased and whether or not the current rules preventing Councillors from being officers of the same authority, should be revised or deleted.

Comment

This is perhaps an area which is more appropriate for members to comment upon. However, it should be borne in mind that the recommendations of the Widdicombe report to introduce these restrictions did come about as a result of perceived abuse, albeit in a small number of local authorities. The difficulty for local authorities generally and the point taken into account by the Widdicombe report, was that, even though these abuses took place only in a small number of authorities, the adverse public perception applied to all local authorities. In these circumstances and to protect the integrity of all local authorities and all members represented on them, it is suggested that the current provisions are both appropriate and proportionate and should not be changed.

2 Conclusion

3.1 This report sets out the current framework governing the political activities of local government employees and suggestions from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for ways in which they might be changed. The report sets out those suggestions, supplies commentary to them and suggests that the report, together with comments made by members of the Committee, should be forwarded to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister as the Authority's response to the consultation paper.

3 European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998

4.1 The proposals within this report are compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 and considered in the light of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

4 Recommendation

That the Standards Committee endorses the comments made in this report on the consultation paper received from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister concerning the regulatory framework governing the political activities of local government employees and submits these to the Government as the Authority's response, together with any further comments that members may wish to make.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published Works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None.