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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received from town councils regarding paragraph 7(2) of the draft Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014.

A summary of the representations received can be found in the Explanatory Memorandum to the statutory instrument (SI 2014 No. 2095).

Paragraph 7 of the statutory instrument relates to the recording of delegated decisions. Paragraph 8.5 of the Explanatory Memorandum explains the drafting and policy improvements we made to the draft text following feedback from local authorities, including representatives of town and parish councils.

We have also published a plain English guide to the new rules, to help both the public and local councils, including a section for town and parish councils. This can be found online:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-and-accountable-local-government-plain-english-guide