Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the publication of Our East End by Tower Hamlets Council on the activities of the Executive Mayor and councillors in the context of the former Secretary of State’s Directions in 2014 on Commissioners monitoring any concerns over the demarcation between publicity for the Authority’s benefit and for party political benefit.

Local authorities must have regard to the Publicity Code when producing publicity, defined as 'any communication in whatever form, addressed to the public at large or a section of the public'.

The Local Government Act 1986 gives the Secretary of State the power to issue Directions to secure compliance with one or more specified provisions of the Code, or all the provisions of the Code.

Any decisions relating to this power are made on a case-by-case basis.