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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Openness of Local Bodies Regulations 2014 on bureaucracy and the cost of services provided by town councils.

Council meetings are public meetings, open to both the press and public. We have updated analogue access rules, originally introduced by Margaret Thatcher in a Private Members’ Bill in 1960, for a digital age.

Legislation now allows for the press and public to report such meetings through digital and social media, including allowing the filming of council meetings.

As the Explanatory Memorandum to the statutory instrument explains, we do not envisage any substantive cost or burden on local authorities from this. There is no new requirement for councils to film or audio record meetings; rather, legislation has been amended to allow the press and public to make their own reports of a public meeting, if they wish.

These reforms will help bring greater awareness of the good work that councillors do for their local communities, and increase reporting and scrutiny of the local democratic process, ultimately saving taxpayers’ money by reducing waste and inefficiency.