Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-02-14

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 9780215556417

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The draft Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity is intended to give effect to the Coalition agreement commitment "to impose tougher rules to stop unfair competition by local authority newspapers", particularly by restricting the permitted number of issues to four a year. Local authorities, though, are required to account to local residents for how they take decisions and how they spend council tax revenues. They have a duty to communicate effectively enough with local residents that they have adequate awareness of how to access and use local services. The Committee found little hard evidence to support the view of the commercial newspaper industry that council publications are, to any significant extent, competing unfairly with independent newspapers at present. It believes that the provisions in the proposed Code relating to cost effectiveness, content and appearance are sufficient to deal with the excesses of certain council papers, which are in any case confined to only a very few examples. The report also considers the provision of the proposed Code which sets out to prevent local authorities from hiring 'lobbyists'. The issue of the use of public money on political lobbying is an important one which the Government should address, and the Committee recommends that the Government work with representative organisations for all tiers of local government, with the UK Public Affairs Council and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Local Public Services Group to develop a Code of Practice for local authorities on the use of lobbyists.

Download or read book Proposed code of recommended practice on local authority publicity written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-02-14 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The draft Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity is intended to give effect to the Coalition agreement commitment "to impose tougher rules to stop unfair competition by local authority newspapers", particularly by restricting the permitted number of issues to four a year. Local authorities, though, are required to account to local residents for how they take decisions and how they spend council tax revenues. They have a duty to communicate effectively enough with local residents that they have adequate awareness of how to access and use local services. The Committee found little hard evidence to support the view of the commercial newspaper industry that council publications are, to any significant extent, competing unfairly with independent newspapers at present. It believes that the provisions in the proposed Code relating to cost effectiveness, content and appearance are sufficient to deal with the excesses of certain council papers, which are in any case confined to only a very few examples. The report also considers the provision of the proposed Code which sets out to prevent local authorities from hiring 'lobbyists'. The issue of the use of public money on political lobbying is an important one which the Government should address, and the Committee recommends that the Government work with representative organisations for all tiers of local government, with the UK Public Affairs Council and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Local Public Services Group to develop a Code of Practice for local authorities on the use of lobbyists.