Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will permit people running in local council elections to put their electoral ward as their address for personnel security reasons.

In its Response (Cm9578) published on the 14 March 2018, to the Committee on Standards in Public Life Review of Intimidation in Public Life, the Government accepts the Committee’s recommendation to remove the requirement for candidates standing as local councillors to have their home address published on the ballot paper, and will look to bring forward secondary legislation to achieve this at a suitable opportunity with the aim of effecting this change in time for the 2019 local elections. The intention is for this secondary legislation to replace the requirement for a specific address with an option to include a statement of residence based on an electoral area where the candidate lives.