Greater Scrutiny for Mayors – But Press Access Concerns Remain

The Government has agreed to increase the power of local authority committees to scrutinise elected mayors following representations from the News Media Association.

In a letter to the NMA from Local Government Minister Baroness Williams, the Government commits to granting committees that scrutinise mayors access to all information and reports relating to mayoral decisions. The Minister confirmed that this included information generally considered confidential or exempt from public scrutiny under local government laws, for example because it is financially sensitive, legally privileged or has been given to the council by a government department on condition of secrecy.

The NMA had raised concerns that provisions buried in schedule 3 of the Cities and Local Government Bill gave Ministers far-reaching powers to order what can and cannot be disclosed to the scrutiny committees and what the committees can make known to the public.

In its letter to the Minister in July, the NMA wrote: “This is a very broad power, with no limits or principles that must be adhered to in exercising it. The term “information” is extremely broad as well and could potentially extend beyond the non-disclosure of a specific report but to withholding from an overview and scrutiny committee the fact that a decision has been made at all.”

In the Minister’s response, Baroness Williams said that the Government would now legislate to ensure that members of the scrutiny committees for the combined authority will have access to documents containing exempt or confidential information where it relates to a decision that they are reviewing.”  

The NMA welcomes the move by the Government but remains concerned that schedule 3 powers could be used to prevent the publication of critical or controversial reports from the committees and that existing grounds for preventing disclosure  could be expanded. It will be submitting these concerns to the House of Commons Local Government Committee’s inquiry into the Cities and Local Government Bill, the deadline for which is 1 September.