The Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012

UK Statutory Instrument 2012 No. 2089 — creates 1 criminal offence.

Made

10 August 2012

In force from

10 September 2012

Extent

Not stated

Subject

Housing, planning, heritage and land

Made under

Local Government Act 2000

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations apply to county councils in England, district councils and London borough councils which are operating executive arrangements under Part 1A of the Local Government Act 2000. The Regulations make provision for public access to meetings and to information relating to decisions of local authority executives, and their committees. In addition, they provide for access to information relating to decisions made by joint committees of local authorities where these are solely comprised of executive members and are discharging executive functions. The Regulations also make provision for public access to documents where executive decisions are made by individual members or officers. The general principle of the Regulations is for the public to have access to meetings and documents where a local authority executive, committee or individual is taking an executive decision, as defined by regulation 2. Part 1 sets out preliminary matters and defines terms used in the Regulations. The purpose of Part 2 is to establish the presumption that meetings of local authority executives and their committees are to be held in public. Regulation 4 sets out the circumstances during which the public must be excluded from meetings. Regulation 5 sets out the formalities to be complied with before a private meeting is held. Regulation 6 sets out formalities to be complied with before a public meeting takes place. Rules relating to access to the agenda and reports for executive meetings are contained in regulation 7. Part 3 provides for specific requirements relating to executive decisions which are key decisions. Regulation 8 sets out the meaning of key decision and regulation 9 sets out the publicity requirements in relation to key decisions. Regulations 10 and 11 allow exceptions to these requirements. Part 4 deals with the recording of all executive decisions. In particular, regulations 12 and 13 require decisions to be recorded in a written statement. Regulations 14 and 15 set out the documents which must be made available for inspection by the public. Members of the local authority and of overview and scrutiny committees are given additional rights to access documents in Part 5. Regulation 17 sets out additional rights of members of overview and scrutiny committees in relation to decisions that committee is scrutinising and in certain circumstances the committee can access exempt or confidential information. An overview and scrutiny committee can require the executive to make a report to the local authority on matters which have not been dealt with as a key decision and which an overview and scrutiny committee consider should have been treated as such under regulation 18. Regulation 19 is a reporting requirement that the executive provides reports to the local authority on all matters which have been treated as urgent under regulation 11. Part 6 makes general provision relating to information. In particular, regulation 20 sets out general principles applicable to the whole instrument relating to the non-disclosure of confidential, exempt information or the advice of a political adviser or assistant. Regulation 21 establishes the manner in which documents required to be available for inspection by the Regulations are to be held at the offices of the local authority. Regulation 22 sets out offences where documents have not been made available for inspection as required under these Regulations. No impact assessment has been produced in relation to these Regulations because no impact on the private or voluntary sector is foreseen.

Offences created by this instrument

• A person who has custody of a document which is required by regulation 7, 14 or 15 to be available for inspection by… regulation 22(1) · Status not determined · Requires proof of a state of mind

What Parliament said about it

Contributions, debates and written statements mentioning this instrument by name. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

• Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill [HL] Lords · Lords Chamber · 13 July 2015

  14A: Clause 3, page 5, line 29, at end insert— “107F Discharge of functions: access to press and the public (1) In transferring any functions of the mayoral combined authority to the mayor under section 107D or 107E, the Secretary of State shall make regulations to provide for press and public access to information and meetings of— (a) members or officers of the combined authority, or(b) any combination of members and officers of the authority,concerning how the function is discharged.(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to access to information and meetings concerning the discharge of these…

• Draft Combined Authorities (Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Access to Information and Audit Committees) Order 2016 Commons · General Committees · 11 January 2017 · The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Andrew Percy)

  I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Combined Authorities (Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Access to Information and Audit Committees) Order 2016. It is a particular pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Rosindell, as I share so many of your views on so many issues. The draft order, which was laid before the House on 28 November 2016, will, if approved, provide the basis for a consistent and robust approach to accountability in combined authorities across the country. The devolution deals that we have negotiated are bespoke and vary in many ways to reflect…

• Combined Authorities (Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Access to Information and Audit Committees) Order 2016 Lords · Lords Chamber · 26 January 2017 · Lord Young of Cookham (Con)

  My Lords, if approved and made, the draft order we are considering today will provide the basis for a robust and consistent approach to accountability in combined authorities across the country. The order will be another key step in implementing the agreed devolution deals and is essential for ensuring effective accountability for the new budgets and powers devolved to directly elected mayors and combined authorities. I remind noble Lords that Parliament has approved, and we have already made, orders establishing city region mayors in Greater Manchester, the Liverpool city region, the…

• English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting) Commons · Public Bill Committees · 14 October 2025 · Siân Berry (Brighton Pavilion) (Green)

  I rise to speak to new clause 48, tabled in my name. I also want to raise another issue for consideration by the Minister at a future stage. In clause 6, the new rules for mayoral combined authorities give simple majority voting for relevant decisions by bodies to adopt budgets or policies, such as spatial development strategies, local transport plans and other strategies set out elsewhere in the Bill. For example, schedule 2 outlines that “a resolution to adopt the strategy is to be made by a simple majority of the constituent members present and voting”. There are other rules to do with a…

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

Check the source

• This instrument on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text, including amendments made since
• Other instruments from 2012