The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014

UK Statutory Instrument 2014 No. 2095 — creates 1 criminal offence.

Made

5 August 2014

In force from

Not determined

Extent

Not stated

Subject

Education, social security, pensions and public services

Made under

Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014

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 make provision to allow members of the public to report and commentate on public meetings of local government bodies in England. They also require written records to be kept of certain decisions taken by officers of these bodies. Regulation 3 amends the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 to allow entry to the meetings of specified local government bodies for the purposes of reporting and to allow the results of the reporting to be publish or disseminated. “Reporting” includes filming and providing commentary on proceedings and allows for the use of a wide range of methods including social media. Regulations 4 and 5 make similar amendments to the Local Government Act 1972 and the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012. Regulation 7 provides for the making of a written record of certain decisions taken by officers of relevant local government bodies; regulation 8 provides for the publication of that record; regulation 9 provides an exemption for confidential information and regulation 10 imposes a criminal sanction in relation to obstruction of persons in providing information under regulation 8, punishable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale. An impact assessment has not been prepared for this instrument as it will have no impact on the costs of business or the voluntary sector.

Offences created by this instrument

• A person who has custody of a document which is required by regulation 8 to be available for inspection by members of… regulation 10(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.

• Openness of Local Government Commons · Written Statements · 26 June 2014 · The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)

  Through the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, the coalition Government are committed to opening up council meetings in England to digital and social media, updating the provisions of Margaret Thatcher’s Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 to a digital age. This will give the press and public new rights to film, report, record, blog and tweet council meetings, allowing the public to see the good work that councillors do, and increase the understanding of local democracy in action. The draft “Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014”, which have been laid before…

• Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 Lords · Grand Committee · 1 July 2014
• Delegated Legislation Commons · Commons Chamber · 2 July 2014

  That the draft Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014, which were laid before this House on 3 April 2014, in the last Session of Parliament, be approved. —(Mark Lancaster.)

• Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 Lords · Lords Chamber · 8 July 2014
• Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill [HL] Lords · Lords Chamber · 29 June 2015 · Lord Shipley (LD)

  My Lords, Amendment 42A concerns media and public access to meetings, addressing issues around the right of the press and the public to have access to the meetings of combined authorities. Existing statutory requirements enable the press, the media generally and the general public to attend, view or listen to council meetings, council committee meetings and council sub-committee meetings. These regulations are well understood in terms of their requirements and their spirit. Alongside the right to attend meetings, there are rights to receive advance notice of meetings, to see agendas in…

• Local Services (Southend) Commons · Commons Chamber · 5 February 2016 · Mr Jones

  My hon. Friend makes a good point. I may need to write to him about a number of things that he has raised in today’s debate. It is important that we recognise that one reason for where we are with the public finances is the profligacy of the last Labour Government, who put the public finances at risk. In the same context, at the last election the Labour party stood on a manifesto in which it said it would reduce funding to local government. That is an important point. Overall, councils have done a good job of achieving savings while balancing budgets, in many cases keeping council tax low…

• Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill Lords · Lords Chamber · 15 March 2023 · Earl Howe (Con)

  I completely appreciate that, but I ask the noble Baroness to hear me out. There are benefits, which we would all recognise, to the side-discussions that are facilitated by being physically next to colleagues, and these are not the only considerations. It is worth my reminding the Committee that there is no restriction on in-person council meetings being filmed or webcast to allow the public to view proceedings remotely. Indeed, the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 extended full rights for the press and public to record and broadcast council meetings. I have listened…

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 2014