Local Government: Disclosure of Information
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 6 June 2016 to Question 38442 on Local Government: Public Private Partnerships, what steps her Department has taken to assess compliance with the Local Government Transparency Code since 2016.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The purpose of the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 (the Code) is to make it easier for the public to directly hold their councils to account, not as a means for central government to check up on local authorities. Therefore, the government does not monitor compliance with the Code.
If there were concerns about a local authority’s compliance with the Code, a complaint could be made to the authority’s Monitoring Officer, or via their complaints procedure. It is possible to make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman where the usual complaints procedures have been exhausted, or to make a Freedom of Information request if local authorities continue to fail in fulfilling their duties under the Code.
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