Blog: 18/03/2022 - Helen McGrath, Head of Public Affairs

Last Friday, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove wrote to Councils about the government’s sanctions on Ukraine and Belarus. In the letter, he urged Councils to keep up to date with the list of sanctions, which can be expected to grow, and confirmed that UK legislation, guidance and updates are now available on the Russia financial sanctions pages.  In a similar vein, the government has decided to expedite the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022, bringing forward its first bill ahead of a second economic crime bill planned for later this year. You can hear more on the Bill, including the register of overseas entities, by listening to the LLG Grapevine Podcast, available Monday 21^st March, on the resource page of our website.  

Turning to LLG news, our AGM with be held at 12.00pm on Thursday 7^th April via the gotowebinar platform. Please register to attend in advance. We are delighted to be nominating new faces to the LLG Board, whilst also bidding farewell to a number of long-standing directors who receive our grateful thanks for their years of dedication. If you cannot attend in person, you can always nominate a proxy to vote on your behalf. Details of proxy votes can be found here.  

To celebrate achievement, the LLG Awards remain open for nomination until 4^th April 2022. There are five categories available, presenting plenty of opportunity to raise your team’s profile or your own achievements. Please do take the time to submit an entry. The boost to morale is without question, and morale is as important as ever.  

For those of you wondering about the Spring Conference (the Weekend School that was), this will be taking place on the 27^th May 2022 in Durham. We will be offering remote access for all those unable to attend in person, but we very much hope some of you will take the opportunity to meet in person once again, not least because the LLG Awards Ceremony will be held on the evening of the conference.  The conference will be available for booking shortly. In terms of our training courses, we have a March discount offer for members on a range of courses including planning committees, political awareness, prosecutions, and possession proceedings.    

Finally, we are delighted to open our Work Experience Week 2022 following the success of last years flagship launch. The week will run from 4^th to 8^th July and your authority still has time to register. Students are carefully selected by LLG and matched with a local authority to minimise the workload for your council. Once your student has spent the morning with you, we provide a full program of workshops, skill-based seminars and roundtables every afternoon. Interested? Contact legaltalent@llg.org.uk to find out more. 

Best wishes 

Helen McGrath 

Head of Public Affairs