Local council elections 2023

LEGAL MATTERS

Key dates and action
by Louise Steele, LGRC Associates Ltd

For many local councils in England, 2023 is an election year. Most clerks approach elections with mild apprehension and some with a distinct sense of jeopardy. There is a fair bit to do in an election year and, inevitably, even if you have done it before, it is usually four years since you last did it. The purpose of this article is to run through the key actions and deadlines for local council clerks (and others) both in electoral law and local government law, to signpost further sources of information and advice and to identify some of the potential pitfalls.

The process involves three main stages. The first is preparation for the election – the period up to Monday 27 March and publication of the notice of election. The second is the period between 27 March and 4 May (polling day), and the third is the period from the declaration of results until the annual meeting of the council (this year that meeting cannot take place before Monday 15 May), with a couple of tasks for councillors to complete by early June.

Stage 1. Preparation for the election

By the time you read this you will be well into the election run-up. Remember, the clerk does not run the parish council election – the returning officer and elections team at your district or unitary council do. Elections teams vary in how they share guidance with town and parish clerks and in the role they ask clerks to play in the process. By now you should have heard from the elections team and should have had some guidance and/or been invited to a briefing meeting. If not, or if any of the guidance is unclear, contact the elections team and ask. Be patient: the team will be small and very busy, but do not be afraid to follow up any unanswered query. Top tip – follow the guidance the elections team offers. Just before 27 March the elections team will send you notice(s) of election for display; these should be displayed in accordance with their instructions on or before the date given on the notice.

Other things that you might be getting on with during this early period include preparing induction materials for new councillors. At the minimum you will need, for every councillor, a declaration of acceptance of office form, a copy of the council’s code of conduct, a register of interest form and (assuming you intend to send agendas, etc. out by email) a consent form for councillors to receive papers electronically. In an ideal world you will also be providing standing orders, financial regulations, scheme of delegation and other policies, training dates and information about the council. Taking the opportunity to get all these documents in order before the election is time well spent (it is a matter for your judgement and of council resources whether you provide paper copies, electronic versions or both). Planning training opportunities for new councillors (and existing ones), particularly on the code of conduct, will also reap benefits. Your county association is your first port of call and hopefully will have published a series of training dates; make sure that you know when they are and book councillors in as soon as you can. Remember that there are other training providers too.

Stage 2. After publication of the notice of election

Clerks’ experience of the elections process differs widely once the notice of election has been published. In larger councils the clerk might not be concerned at all with the nomination process (political parties take the lead); in smaller councils they might come under pressure to facilitate the nomination process for potential candidates (especially candidates who are currently serving councillors). There is a very small window (just over a week) for candidates to submit their nomination papers. The expected deadline is 4pm on Tuesday 4 April. At this stage there are some potential pitfalls for a clerk. Some elections teams ask clerks to make nomination papers available to potential candidates; there is nothing wrong with that, particularly if it saves candidates a journey to the principal council’s offices. However, a difficulty arises when clerks are then asked for advice on how to complete the forms. The proper source of advice for a candidate is the elections team, though there is also very full advice for candidates published on the Electoral Commission’s website under the heading “Parish council elections in England”. You should be generous in signposting candidates to the proper sources of advice and wary of offering your own opinion. If you are an elector in the parish area you serve you may be tempted to sign nomination papers as a proposer or seconder of a candidate. I am not aware of any legal obstacle to a clerk doing this, but since it compromises the independence of the post it is not considered good practice.

Hard copies of nomination papers need to be delivered by hand, by the deadline and at the location specified in the notice of election. The deadline is absolute – late nomination papers will not be accepted. Clerks sometimes feel pressure to deliver papers on behalf of candidates but should resist this; the role of the clerk is to make sure, where possible, that candidates understand the deadline and encourage them to hand-deliver their papers in person, in good time.

There is also the question of “purdah”. The word makes it sound mysterious but it is probably better than the phrase “period of heightened sensitivity”, which is how the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity describes it. Put simply, purdah is the period from the publication of the notice of election until after the election. During this time the council should remain completely neutral. Publicity that might be perceived as influencing public opinion and conferring an advantage on one set of candidates or political group (usually existing councillors) over other candidates should be avoided. For this year’s elections, purdah starts on or before 27 March.

The statement of persons nominated will be published within 24 hours of the deadline for the delivery of nomination papers; you should expect to be displaying it publicly the next day (6 April). Hang on to a copy for your own records, particularly if it shows candidates’ home addresses: if they are elected, you will need that information.

When the nominations are known it will be clear to some councils that theirs will be an uncontested election, one in which the number of candidates is the same as, or fewer than, the number of places available for election. In this case there will be no ballot, but the timetable remains the same as for a contested election. The councillors elected in an uncontested election take office on Tuesday 9 May. Councillors must make their declarations of acceptance of office on or after 9 May.

If the number of councillors elected in an uncontested election is fewer than the number of seats on the council but enough to provide a quorum (three or one-third of the total number of seats, whichever is the greater number), then the council can fill the vacancies by co-option without needing to advertise them. If, however, the number of councillors elected is insufficient to provide a quorum, then the council cannot function and the clerk must refer the matter to the district or unitary council.

The Coronation weekend

The long weekend immediately after the 2023 elections to celebrate HM the King’s coronation on Saturday 6 May means that some council election results will not be declared until after the bank holiday Monday. Make sure that you know when your elections team has scheduled the count for your council and plan accordingly. For civic and ceremonial purposes, it is useful to remember that existing councillors remain in office until the Sunday after an election whether or not they have been re-elected. Importantly, the chair of the council (or town mayor if so called), whether or not re-elected, remains in office until the annual meeting of council.

Stage 3. After declaration of the election results

If you can attend the election count, do so, and meet your new councillors as soon as their result is declared. Get their contact details immediately, and share as much documentation as seems sensible. Remember that a candidate can choose for their home address not be published, and you might find that you have new councillors whom you cannot contact until the elections team provides you with their addresses (based on my own experience in 2019, the team will not necessarily do this automatically).

A councillor must make a declaration of acceptance of office at or before the first meeting after the election or at a later meeting if the council agrees. If it is necessary for a council to agree a later date, make sure that the resolution is specific about which councillor(s) it covers and gives a clear deadline. If a councillor does not make a declaration of acceptance of office and the council has not agreed a later date, then the seat becomes vacant and a notice of casual vacancy will need to be published. Councillors do not have to wait until the meeting to make their declaration – they may make it in front of you at any point before that meeting. They may also make it in front of another councillor. In all cases, a declaration of acceptance of office form must be properly completed and signed and you should keep it safely.

Once you know who your elected councillors are and their contact details, then you can issue the summons for the annual meeting of the council. In the table below, I have indicated that the earliest date for the annual meeting of councils this year is 15 May. This assumes that results are declared on or before Tuesday 9 May and that the summons is issued on that date. If the results are likely to be delayed beyond 9 May, then the annual meeting should be scheduled for later. If a councillor has not yet given consent to receive papers by electronic means, then you must post, or deliver, the summons to their home address.

Finally, and specific to elections, councillors have a duty to make a return to the elections team about their election expenses (even if the expenses were nil) and they should also return a completed register of interest form, both within 28 days of the election. This is their personal responsibility – but it is helpful if you remind them.

Summary of key dates for parish council elections in England, 2023

Louise Steele has been a local government officer for 35 years and a local council clerk for 18 years. Since 2017 she has worked with LGRC Associates Ltd, a company providing locum, consultancy and training services to town, parish and community councils. LGRC’s partners and associates include lawyers, accountants, HR specialists, experienced electoral services managers, former deputy returning officers and monitoring officers, all of whom have also been local council clerks. The company’s training offer includes bespoke member training to suit councils’ needs and can cover post-election issues such as induction, codes of conduct, meetings etiquette and protocols, understanding standing orders and much more. Check out its website at www.lgrc.uk and its social media channels @lgrcuk.

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Written by Louise Steele, LGRC
As appeared in Clerks & Councils Direct, March 2023
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