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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have received representations regarding a specific case in which parish councillors who are also members of a Community Land Trust (CLT) have been told to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest even though the CLT is legally established as a not-for-profit Industrial and Provident Society that requires members to take out £5 par value (not investment) shares and allows no income for members or directors from its activities.

We are not aware of having received representations on such a case. The national rules on local authority members’ pecuniary interests, as set out in the Localism Act 2011, require local authority members, including parish councillors, to register and disclose certain pecuniary interests, as defined in the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012. A guide for councillors on openness and transparency on personal interests is available on my department’s web-site. Local authority members who contact my department for advice are directed to the regulations and to the guide and are advised to contact the monitoring officer of their relevant local authority, who can advise them on their specific queries.