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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what consequences a local authority monitoring officer would face, under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 or other relevant laws, if he or she allowed an elected member who had not paid their council tax to vote on the council budget.

Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 makes it an offence for a councillor in council tax arrears (with at least two months unpaid bills) to vote at a meeting of the council where financial matters relating to council tax are being considered.

Monitoring Officers have a specific duty to report on any matters they believe are, or may be illegal. A failure to report any illegal activity would be a disciplinary matter for the relevant local authority.