I am involved in conversations about local government governance models and I am concerned as I learn about the tricks that public authorities are using to frustrate scrutiny exercised by FOI and SAR correspondence. Here are my notes.

Govt & the Law

I started at the GLA and came across these links outlining the laws impacting the administration of local government.

  1. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government_in_England
  3. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/29/contents – Greater London Authority Act 1999
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_London_Authority_Act_1999
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_London_Authority_Act_2007
  6. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/29/section/66 – Section 66, ethical standards, now replaced
  7. Greater London Authority Acts and Orders, it was amended, a lot, this is at legislation.co.uk
  8. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/22/contents – Local Govt Act 2000 – this supercededs the GLA Act’s ethical standards clause, also described on wikipedia.
  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localism_Act_2011, the act & orders at legislation.gov.uk.
  10. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/contents/enacted – Localism 2011 Act

I have written to the MHC&LG to ask about transitions to committee led councils  as an FOI.

Scrutiny

This involves the FOI and specific scrutiny powers of the various scrutiny committees.

  1. Statutory Guidance on Overview and Scrutiny in Local and Combined Authorities
  2. https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/11%2064_Scrutiny%20for%20councillors_03_1.pdf
  3. HoC Research Briefing “Overview &  Scrutiny in Local Government” – SN06520

The ICO

  1. How to disclose information safely by the ICO, not quite what we want, rather the obverse.
  2. https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/2259722/subject-access-code-of-practice.pdf

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