Blog: Friday 31st October, 2025 - Paul Turner, LLG President

Hello!

Another busy month for Team LLG has passed. 

• We’ve been busy promoting the role of the monitoring officer a round table in Westminster Hall organised by our friends at ADSO. We had a great conversation, including whether the title ‘monitoring officer’ should be changed to something more easily understood.  Afterwards Deborah and I took a selfie under a unicorn statute to symbolise the unique qualities of a good monitoring officer.  Unfortunately I managed not to include the head of the unicorn in the photo which undermined the point somewhat.  Meanwhile the Chief Executive of ADSO was so excited that by the event she didn’t take any photos at all.  So there is no photographic proof of what I what I have just said.  But there are witnesses, I promise.
• We’re preparing for the launch of the professional body for MOs at the end of November.  You may have seen the LinkedIn post advertising for volunteers for the helpline.  We had a great response to that.  Huge thanks to those who have volunteered and we look forward to working with you.
• We have been responding to what Helen Bennett unforgettably referred to as the ‘pandemonium’ caused by the Mazur judgment.   The LGA have helpfully got some advice but it all still seems unclear.  The CPR and other pieces of legislation seem not to reflect the interpretation in the case and it creates some potentially absurd results – such as a housing officer can rock up at court to present a rent possession case but can’t actually issue the claim form. None of this seems to help consumer choice and wasn’t that meant to be the point of the Legal Services Act 2007.  Last week we had a really well attended meeting of people interested in this topic – in fact we had a waiting list.  We will continue to promote the interests of all our members.
• Team Bradley have been busy too. Helen Bradley, Vice President represented us at the SOLACE summit and  Anita Bradley, Deputy Vice President was on a panel at the CIPFA conference promoting the interests of the Monitoring Officer.

If you missed all the exciting drama that marked the revelation of the name of the new independent board Chairman, he is Nick Ong-Seng whose brilliant career to date includes managing risk for Amazon, chairing an insurance company and as an independent board member for the Institute of Actuaries.  We are very lucky to have secured his services.  The first meeting he chaired passed as a dizzying whirlwind of ideas and energy, which is everything we had hoped for.

I also received the LLG Presidential chain of office last month.  To be entirely honest, there’s not much call for chains of office these days, even in the bling-conscious county of Essex.  I was invited to our Chairman’s Reception where the invitation specifically states that ‘chains may be worn’.  It decided it would have been rude not to, as well as being the only gig I go to where chains of office ‘blend in’.  It doesn’t blend in quite so well at the beach as you can see from the photo.

Hope to see as many of you as possible at the Governance Conference.

Take care

Paul