Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill

Baroness Eaton Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Thursday 6th April 2017 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Eaton]

That the Bill be now read a second time.

[Baroness Eaton (Con)]

My Lords, I am pleased to be supporting this Bill through the House and believe it adds a valuable dimension to existing inspection rights and local accountability for relevant authorities. The complete list of bodies to which the Bill will apply is set out in Schedule 2 to the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, which this Bill amends.

The Bill will extend the definition of interested persons to include journalists, which includes citizen journalists, so that they may access a wider range of local audit documents to assist with their investigations and publicise their findings, so that local electors are made aware and thus better able to hold their council to account for its actions through questioning the auditor or making an objection. It is important to emphasise that it will not allow journalists themselves to question the auditor or make an objection. Given that the cost of the auditor investigating a question or objection is met by the local body concerned, and given the cost of such action to the local public purse, this right should be exercised only by an elector in that area, who could be impacted by those costs. As an ex-chairman of the Local Government Association, I firmly believe that openness and transparency should be the default position in local government. In my view, this short and simple Bill will assist in achieving that aim.

In the other place, there was some debate over the merits of extending these rights to all UK registered electors. While the amendment that would have implemented that change was ultimately withdrawn, my strongly held view is that extending this right to all would be wrong for several reasons. While Ministers clearly flagged their intention back in 2014 to extend the inspection rights for accounting information to journalists in order to assist them in their investigations, they did not suggest extending such rights to all and sundry. Extending these rights to everyone without any consultation as to the impact would vastly expand the potential for mischief-making without any wider public benefit, as well as potentially placing a cost burden on local public bodies.

Other provisions in the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 already require local government to publish a wide range of information, including financial data, through adherence to transparency codes. However, the ability to inspect the financial records of the year just ended for 30 days and before they are signed off by the auditor is a separate right that can be exercised only by interested persons and local government electors for the area concerned. This is because such persons have the right to inspect a wider range of information than just the final accounts, which are required to be published. Electors in the area may also question the auditor or make a formal objection to the accounts, which may require the auditor to investigate and could prevent closure of the accounts until the investigation is complete.

To allow anyone to inspect this wider range of accounting information could result in a greater cost burden on local authorities, as there would be a far greater volume of requests to fulfil, with associated administrative costs in locating the documents requested. Such costs could be regarded as a new burden on the authority, because we would be asking them to do something they have previously not been required to do, and which would therefore need to be funded by the department. Extending an existing right to a defined group of people would not be considered in the same light.

To those who think that by extending this right to citizen journalists, we are in effect opening the floodgates, I say that the wording in the Bill helps to define who might reasonably be expected to fall within that category. By referring to “journalistic material” the focus is on what the person does and would suggest that such a person would be able to provide details of blogs or tweets they had authored and the forums in which they had been published. Furthermore, use of the term “publication” implies a public element. Therefore, while it might include journalistic material tweeted on Twitter, it may not include material circulated to a small invite-only Facebook group. It is also unlikely to include material sent as a direct message on Twitter, Facebook or by email. The onus would be on the citizen journalist to provide proof. Such a person should be able to provide details of articles, blogs or tweets they have authored and where they have been published in order to gain the ability to inspect the accounting documents requested from the local authority.

The other key issue debated in another place last week related to health bodies and why they are excluded from this Bill and, indeed, from the inspection provisions in the 2014 Act. I am going to leave it to my noble friend Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth to set out the Government’s view on how that issue relates to government policy.

Given my attempts to further address the key points raised last week in the other place, I am hopeful that noble Lords present here today will feel able to support this small but important measure. I beg to move.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Eaton]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, for his encouragement and support for the Bill and I thank my noble friend Lord Bourne for his clarifications and for stressing its importance.

Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.