This report has been superseded: see our list of good practice guides for more recent publications

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A local authority can be regarded as having a general obligation to ensure that those whom it represents and acts for are kept informed about what it is doing in their name. Further, because a local authority exercises power over individuals and groups in its community, it can be said to have an obligation to ensure that those people know how they are being affected by its actions, and what their rights and responsibilities are in relation to them.

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Parliament has legislated for those obligations in a number of ways:

• In general terms, by stating that the purposes of local government are, among other things, to provide –
  • scope for communities to make choices between different kinds of local public facilities and services; and
  • for the effective participation of local persons in local government.¹
• In operational terms, by requiring every local authority to conduct its affairs so that–
  • its business is conducted in a manner that is comprehensible and open to the public; and
  • its local communities are adequately informed about the activities of the authority.²
• By making mandatory, in specified circumstances, such things as–
  • giving public notice;
  • following the special consultative procedure;
  • making a decision by special order;
  • allowing the public to attend meetings and be given meeting papers; and
  • acting on requests for official information.
• By giving local authorities the powers to disseminate material of the kinds specified in section 602(a) of the Local Government Act.³

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Consistent with its status as a creature of statute, a local authority must always act reasonably and responsibly and within the scope of its functions, duties and powers. It should also act at all times in the collective interests of its own ratepayers and other citizens of its district.

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A local authority is a corporate entity that should be seen to be ‘speaking with one voice’. That is to say, most communications of information at public expense should represent the corporate or collective position. (The guidance in paragraphs 401-403 and 501-516 has been framed for application to such communications.) In some circumstances, however, a local authority may consider the communication of the personal position of its members to be warranted at authority expense. (The guidance in paragraphs 701-707 has been framed to apply to such communications.)

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When the authority considers that information need not be presented as representing the corporate or collective position, the manner of its presentation should not create the appearance that what is being said represents the personal views of the people to whom the information is being attributed. Special care with presentation is required when attribution is to a spokesperson – commonly the mayor or authority chairperson or chairperson of the associated committee – particularly during the pre-election period⁴ (see paragraphs 705-706).

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Local authority advertising and publicity – especially that of a “non-public-notice” type – should be for the purpose of providing objective, impartial, factual, and explanatory information. The material should not be presented in a way that promotes, or could be perceived as promoting, personal or party political interests. No material should include the logo or slogan of a political party or other sectional grouping.

1: Local Government Act 1974, section 37K(d) and (i).

2: Local Government Act 1974, section 223C(a) and (f).

3: “…handbooks, abstracts, or other publications containing information and matters of interest relative to the history, administration, and affairs of the district…and…information that is designed to educate, instruct, or inform the public concerning local government activities in the district or that has for its object the advancement or development of the district”.

4: What constitutes the ‘pre-election period’ is itself a matter of judgement. Generally speaking, the period could be regarded as having started when the first declarations of candidacy have been made.