The Local Government Act 1986 places tight restrictions on what and who the Council can legally publicise. This particularly applies to information about the activities of individual councillors, where the council is required by law to avoid any implication that it is spending public money on promoting a single political party or individual. The rules and legal restrictions governing official council publicity are many, complex and difficult to understand. Therefore, this protocol seeks to provide a more straightforward guide on the key aspects of the rules and how they impact upon our communications activity and publicity. It also sets out and defines the roles and responsibilities for officers and councillors.
This guidance relates primarily to council communications or publicity through the media. While the (traditional) media is a key channel for us, there are others which we can use. The principles outlined in this protocol will be similarly applied to all other channels such as social media, unless otherwise stated.
Official Council publicity will only relate to the functions and activities of the City of York Council, not individual political groups. This means we are largely restricted to using an officer or executive members who have an official position or area of responsibility within the organisation.
This protocol is divided into 5 parts:
- Those holding ‘official positions’
- Legal restrictions
- Application of the rules (speaking on behalf of the Council)
- Special rules covering pre-election periods
- The clearance process