Minister urges monitoring officers to “look sympathetically” at requests from councillors for their home addresses to be withheld from register of interests

The Government has encouraged monitoring officers to “look sympathetically” at accommodating requests from councillors for their home addresses to be withheld from published versions of the local authority’s Register of Interests where there are legitimate concerns of violence or intimidation.

This came in a letter today from Local Government Minister Simon Hoare to chief executives of local authorities in England aimed at making sure all councillors and elected mayors are aware of the sensitive provisions in Section 32 of the Localism Act 2011.

This is in response to recent concerns from elected members about intimidation in public life.

Hoare wrote: “The sensitive interests’ provisions provide for details about a registered interest to be excluded from versions of the Register of Interests available for public inspection (or published online) where a member and monitoring officer agree that the disclosure of that interest could lead to violence or intimidation of them or their family. They provide for members to disclose that they have an interest but for the details to be withheld from the public register.”

The minister asks chief executives to bring the letter’s contents to the attention of all current members of their council and their council’s monitoring officer.

Previously the Prime Minister, when Minister for Local Government in 2019, wrote to all Leaders of local authorities in England on this matter, Hoare said.

“I want to refresh awareness of the sensitive interests’ provisions among the current cohort of councillors in response to recently raised concerns about councillors’ personal safety.”