Coronavirus and local authority meetings in England and Wales

Alastair Lewis gives an overview of the regulations for local authority meetings in England and Wales during the COVID-19 crisis.

The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 were made on 1 April 2020 and will come into force on 4 April 2020. They apply to meetings taking place before 7 May 2021 (which could be brought back to an earlier date if the existing restrictions are relaxed).

Local authorities have been awaiting the publication of the regulations eagerly since the Coronavirus Act was passed, so this note has been put out promptly, and therefore draws heavily on the Government’s own Explanatory Notes.

The regulations enable local authorities to hold meetings remotely including by (but not limited to) telephone conferencing, video conferencing, live webcast, and live interactive streaming.

The regulations also remove the requirement for local authorities to hold annual meetings, and to enable requirements for public and press access to local authority meetings and associated documents to be complied with through remote means and website access.

The regulations apply (among others) to county councils, district councils, combined authorities, parish councils, joint committees constituted to be a local planning authority, joint waste authorities, fire and rescue authorities and national park authorities. The regulations apply to meetings of a local authority, an executive of a local authority, a joint committee of two or more local authorities, and a committee or sub-committee of any of those bodies.

Summary of main regulations:

  • Local authorities can determine not to hold their annual meeting. So full council meetings that were scheduled in the mandatory March to May period can now be postponed.
  • Local authorities have the flexibility to hold meetings at any time of day and on any day, to alter how frequently meetings can be held and to move or cancel meetings without requiring further notice.
  • Meetings can be held remotely. For the purposes of any statutory requirement, members of the local authority will be considered as attending a meeting if they can hear, and where practicable see, and be heard and, where practicable, be seen by other members and the public. This allows for meetings to be held by remote means including via telephone conferencing, video conferencing, live webchat and live streaming. The “where practicable” wording is important because it means that it is not an absolute requirement that every participant can be seen all the time, even when they are speaking. Those who are now getting used to video conferencing will know that is practically impossible to achieve.
  • Local authorities can make standing orders about remote attendance at meetings in relation to voting, access to documents and facilities that can be employed to allow the meeting to be held remotely to suit their own circumstances.
  • The “place” at which a local authority meeting is held is not confined to the council building. The “place” may be where the instigator or arranger of the meeting is, or electronic, digital or virtual locations such as internet locations, web addresses or conference call telephone numbers. It could be an officer’s or member’s home.
  • Requirements for a meeting being “open to the public” are satisfied by a local authority holding the meeting remotely. This enables local authorities to facilitate and hold remote meetings outside of the council offices and/or remotely and allows for members of the public to attend remotely.
  • Where documents must be “open to inspection”, this is satisfied by the documents being published on the council’s website. Documents include notices, agendas, reports, background papers, minutes etc. The publication, posting or making available of documents at council offices includes publication on the website of the council, or in the case of a parish council, on their principal council’s website.
  • Where the annual meeting is not held, the appointments which would normally be dealt with at the meeting will continue until the next annual meeting of the authority or when the local authority determines, providing continuity of membership.

Local authorities should study the regulations in full to consider the effect on their forthcoming meetings, and we can advise more fully should it be required. The regulations can be found here and the explanatory notes here.

Alastair Lewis is a partner at Sharpe Pritchard. He can be contacted This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or telephone 020 7405 4600.