Council meetings during purdah

Last updated:16 April 2010

Purdah (or "pre-election period") arrangements are now firmly in place across the public sector. Many public sector organisations have issued guidance indicating when they will, or won't, comment publicly on policy issues.

However, in many local authorities, normal business continues, and scrutiny committees continue to meet. Scrutiny's power to request information, and, under certain circumstances, to require attendance from partners, also continues. Purdah makes no difference to this process, as long as due care is taken at meetings, on all sides, to understand the additional political sensitivities at this time.

We have prepared some general guidance, which may be of use over the next three weeks. You can find it here.

• 1.

  tim gilling, at cfps, said on 19 April 2010

  The NHS has been issued with guidance about restrictions on public comment during the election period. The guidance can be found at http://bit.ly/b42s2V  Not all councils are holding local elections and their OSCs may be operating normally over the next few weeks. It is possible that OSCs in those areas will be considering matters on which they wish to seek information from NHS bodies, either in writing or by inviting NHS colleagues to attend meetings to answer questions. They may also be asking for responses from the NHS to reports and recommendations. The legal powers of OSCs remain in force as do the duties on NHS bodies to engage with OSCs (set out in the NHS Act 2006). NHS bodies should not decline reasonable requests to provide information to OSCs, to attend OSC meetings to answer questions or to respond to reports and recommendations. However, Councillors and officers supporting OSCs should respect the fact that any information provided, answers given and responses made over the next few weeks are likely to be framed by the guidance the Department of Health has issued. OSCs and NHS bodies are encouraged to discuss how they both can approach scrutiny of health matters in a consenual way during the election period, particularly where there are no local elections. Such an approach should make it possible for effective and efficient scrutiny to take place. The guidance from the Department of Health to NHS bodies is to contact their Strategic Health Authority for advice and CfPS is also happy to provide advice and guidance as necessary.