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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance they have given to councils and local authorities regarding the registration of interests other than disclosable pecuniary interests, and in particular whether elected persons who are Freemasons should declare that fact as an interest.

It is for individual local authorities in England to determine what non-pecuniary interests their members should register and disclose in accordance with their code of conduct. My Department has produced an illustrative code of conduct for local authorities, which advises that “you must, within 28 days of taking office as a member or co-opted member, notify your authority’s monitoring officer of any disclosable pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest which your authority has decided should be included in the register or which you consider should be included if you are to fulfil your duty to act in conformity with the Seven Principles of Public Life”.

The illustrative code of conduct (attached) is available on my Department’s web site at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/illustrative-text-for-local-code-of-conduct--2