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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of filming (a) council and (b) sub-council network group meetings to promote transparency.

Whilst the Government attaches importance to local authority transparency which is promoted by the Local Government Transparency Code with core mandatory requirements, it has not assessed the potential merits of filming council meetings.

The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020, which came into force on 4 April 2020, enable all local authority meetings before 7 May 2021 to be held remotely by such means as telephone conferencing, video conferencing, live webchat and live streaming, as a council considers appropriate.