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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has issued guidance to local authorities on the access of journalists to council proceedings.

Transparency and openness should be fundamental to everything councils do. Under the Local Government Act 1972, all local authority meetings must be open to the public, including journalists, except in limited, defined circumstances.

The most recent guidance remains the 2014 ‘Open and accountable local government: plain English guide’ that was designed to support members of the public, including journalists, accessing, recording, or reporting on local authority meetings and obtaining meeting documents.