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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answers of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 29W, and of 21 November 2013, Official Report, columns 980-1W, on local government publications, if he will list all councils that publish magazines or newsletters more than four times a year.

Further to the information provided in my previous answers, my Department has not at this point undertaken a recent, definitive survey of every council in the country. It is a moving picture, as the commencement of the Local Audit and Accountability Act has encouraged greater compliance with the Publicity Code – for example, further to my answer of 21 November 2013, Official Report, Column 980W, I understand that East Northamptonshire has stopped its newspaper.

Such local initiatives are preferable to intervention. Notwithstanding, I refer the rt. hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement of 28 April 2014, Official Report, Column 35WS, which outlines the rationale for the steps taken on 17 April against five specific councils with the worst breaches, and which notes how we are prepared to take further action against other breaches of the Publicity Code.