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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made (1) of the requirement for councillors to publish their home addresses on council websites, and (2) of the effect of this requirement on the safety and welfare of councillors, and female councillors in particular; and what plans they have to remove this requirement so that councillors have parity with Members of Parliament.

At present, councillors are required to register their home address as part of their council’s register of interests given that planning decisions, for example, can have a substantial impact on an area in which a councillor lives. Registers of interests are typically published on council websites, but there are already provisions in section 32 of the Localism Act 2011 to allow councils to withhold sensitive interests from the public register where their disclosure could lead to violence or intimidation.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life’s review of Local Government Ethical Standards noted that the sensitive interest provisions are often only used when a member has already experience intimidation or harassment, and so recommended that councillors should not be required to register their home addresses as a disclosable pecuniary interest. The Government is considering the recommendations from the CSPL’s report and we intend to publish a response in due course.