Blog: 12/11/21 - Helen McGrath, LLG Head of Public Affairs

It’s been 12 years since the expenses scandal rocked parliament and this week Boris Johnson has been forced to defend it again, stressing the UK is not "remotely a corrupt country". This comes off the back of the Sir Geoffrey Cox investigation, second jobs and paid for lobbying hitting the news. The PM was quoted as saying "We have a very, very tough system of parliamentary democracy and scrutiny, not least by the media… I think what you have got is cases where, sadly, MPs have broken the rules in the past, may be guilty of breaking the rules today. What I want to see is them facing appropriate sanctions." LLG have of course been publicly calling for appropriate sanctions at the local level since 2019.
 
Lord Evans, Chair of the CSPL on publishing ‘Upholding Standards in Public Life (Standards Matter 2) Report’, this month expressed the committee’s views that “It is time to place more of the ethics regulators dealing with ministerial interests, public appointments and business appointments for former office holders onto a statutory footing giving them clearer accountability and greater independence from the executive they regulate.” 

Alongside this, The LGA has launched a Civility in Public Life programme, due to “concerns about the impact an increasing level of public intimidation and toxicity of debate is having on our country’s democratic processes.” Whilst local government overwhelmingly conducts itself with transparency and accountability, we should be mindful of glass houses. We too have been rocked by significant failings, and inappropriate conduct in a small minority of local authorities. Challenging behaviour can be a lonely, pressurised, stressful path, and yet it is incumbent upon us to do just that. LLG remains committed to the pursuit of statutory protection to ease this burden. We also remain committed to supporting you, whether by political awareness training, networking opportunities, our monitoring officer defence scheme or simply a friendly ear. Today we came together to share good practice in our second day of the LLG Governance Conference 2021; where we explored themes of conduct, organisational change, PFI’s, executive functions and integrated health care. If you missed it and want to capitalise on the training available, please contact membership@llg.org.uk  

In other news, if you have been following the Forum posts in relation to the use of website data, you will definitely want to read the judgement in Lloyd -v-Google LLC [2019] EWCA Civ 1599 where the Supreme Court rejected the notion that every data subject affected by a non-trivial data breach is entitled to an award of compensation for the mere ‘loss of control’ of their data rather than when the data subject has suffered some form of material damage (including distress).  

Finally, on 3^rd December 2021, LLG is delighted to bring you our first ever full day Property and Regeneration Conference, entirely remotely, which will feature sessions on compulsory purchase orders, powers under s.203 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, decision making and governance specifically relating to regeneration; local authority owned property companies; local government finance and scheme planning and funding development schemes through s106, The Conference will also feature a ‘deal debrief’ panel session exploring key lessons to be learned from regeneration projects. To book click here  

Best wishes

Helen McGrath 

Head of Public Affairs