The last (Labour) government brought in a raft of measures which required public servants – when making decisions – to be open and honest about what may have influenced their judgements.
One of the consequences was that local Councillors were required to declare publicly if they had received any financial donations from, or had other links to, individuals, companies, Unions or other organisations which might benefit from a particular decision on which they were voting.
The move led to an improvement in the transparency of decision making. The new Code of Conduct was enforced initially by a National Standards Board but that responsibility soon passed to a local, independently chaired, “Standards Committee”.
Last week we published a list of Labour Council candidates who had declared on their election expenses returns the amounts donated to their campaign by interest groups such as the Local Government Trades Union UNISON.
A total of £ £2,385.65 was admitted as the cost of a 6 page glossy manifesto leaflet that had been printed and paid for by UNISON. It had apparently been delivered in all York wards except Heworth, Heslington, Haxby, Heworth Without, Huntington and Strensall. It remains unclear why electors were not given the manifesto in these wards especially as the total cost of the leaflet – according to UNISON – was £4724. Whether or not election expenses returns are accurate though is a matter that falls within the responsibilities of the Electoral Commission (and ultimately the Police) if inaccuracies are suspected.
A few days after the election expenses returns had been lodged with the Guildhall in June, the new York Council met to decide whether to change the budget for the current financial year.
One of the proposals tabled by the new Council Leader was to increase the amount allocated to the local government union to pay for their members to have “time off” to attend to union affairs. In total the cost of this concession was valued at £37,350. The budget amendment was carried with all Labour Councillors voting in favour of the proposal.
Councillors are not allowed by law to vote on issues in which they have a “prejudicial” interest. Essentially these are decisions where they might benefit from the proposal.
Councillors may also declare a “personal” interest. While this might not debar them from voting on an issue, it ensures that residents are aware of a possible influence on their voting behaviour.
At the June meeting the following Labour Councillors didn’t declare the Interest which arose out of the donation that UNISON had made towards their election expenses.
Cllrs Horton, Douglas, King, Scott, Semlyen, Looker, Watson, Alexander, Riches, Barnes, Fitzpatrick, Gunnell, Merrett, Cross, McIlveen, Burton & Jeffries.
5 other Councillors did declare personal interests either because they were current, or past, members of UNISON (Crisp, Fraser, Laing, Hodson & Williams)
(NB. Labour representatives for the Heworth and Heslington Wards had previously claimed that they did not issue the UNISON funded leaflet in their wards).
The issue is now one for the local Standards committee to consider.
We will publish later this week extracts from the standing Register of Interests which can be found on the Councils web site and which is supposed to list any donations made by third parties, including Unions, towards a councillors election costs. We have copies of the Register as it was at the end of October. It contains some surprises.
